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The holidays are approaching, and consumer electronics are likely to be a bestseller among gift-givers again this year.
But as people plug in their shiny new digital cameras, big-screen TVs, laptops and portable music players, what some may not realize is the growing chunk of their electric bill these devices are greedily consuming.
Overall, consumer electronics account for 15 percent to 20 percent of household electricity use today, up from 5 percent in 1980, according to figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental nonprofit organization. That makes high-tech toys the fastest-growing source of home electricity use, the NRDC said.
"We're bringing more and more of these products into our homes and using more and more energy to power them," EPA spokeswoman Denise Durrett said.
TVs are the biggest energy beasts of the high-tech gadget world. Alone, they account for 4 percent of the nation's annual residential electricity consumption, NRDC said. That's roughly the same amount of energy used annually by all households in the state of New York, it added. Factor in peripherals--like DVD players, set-top boxes, game systems and TiVo machines--and TV-related energy consumption can shoot up to more than 10 percent of the average household's annual electric bill.
Plasma TVs in particular have become the home's equivalent of a gas-guzzling SUV, consuming two to three times more energy than other smaller types of TVs. Some models can suck up as much electricity each year as a refrigerator, the NRDC said.
With screen sizes growing and sales of power-intensive plasma and high-definition units on the rise, NRDC expects national energy use for TVs to increase by more than 50 percent by the end of the decade. The trend is also being fueled by the ever-growing number of TV sets in use across the country and by the fact that Americans are spending more time in front of them.
Among these factors, size is important. "This trend toward bigger TVs means we're going to eat more power," Chris Ambarian, an analyst at iSuppli, said.
Interestingly, liquid-crystal displays, which are generally more energy-efficient than cathode-ray tube displays when used in computer monitors, offer no advantage energy-wise when used in TVs, NRDC noted. "Once LCDs exceed the size of a typical computer display and get as large as 40 diagonal inches, the LCD technology has no consistent efficiency advantage," the group said in a report.
Energy-sapping adapters
TVs aren't the only energy-chugging gadgets in the home. Anything that comes with an external power source, such as an adapter or charger, can also bloat energy bills. With the proliferation of cell phones, laptops, handheld computers, digital cameras and digital music players, every person in the U.S. has an average of five external power adapters, the EPA said.
The problem is that most adapters are incredibly inefficient, with many current models utilizing only 30 to 60 percent of the electricity they process, according to the EPA. In addition, adapters will continue to consume a steady trickle of energy even when they're not in use--a problem that plagues many home electronics. "It's wasting electricity the whole time it's plugged in," Ambarian said.
Many consumer electronics products have the same characteristic. Even if you think they're off, TVs, desktop computers and almost any device with a microchip require some juice to keep their inner clocks ticking, maintain settings and help them power up quickly.
Cable and satellite set-top boxes, and digital video recorders such as TiVo are among the worst offenders in this regard, NRDC said. A digital video recorder can consume up to 350 kilowatt hours a year--or half as much energy as a refrigerator--said Noah Horowitz, a senior scientist at NRDC. "In general, if you feel heat, energy is being wasted," he said.
See more CNET content tagged:
energy, consumer electronics, electricity, video recorder, TV
rid entirely of the Energy Star program.
If energy efficiency was ever an issue for anyone, makers would start competing over it and advertising it. Instead, nobody cares if your radio consumes 30W of power of 6W since a kilo (yep 1000) watt hour costs 8 cents.
How do you get the message across to the public though when they make their purchase decision. Their usual criteria is which box is the cheapest? Yes we could have procured a cheaper PSU adapter but it would have consumed another 1 or 2 watts. So another 50 cents to a dollar cost up for lower power could add another $5 at retail when you do the percentage mark-ups and sales tax etc.
The problem is when you add up the millions of boxes deployed you are talking 100's of megawatts when you account for multiple boxes in the home as well which is essential for Analog TV switch off.
So in the end every watt counts! It can be done and we try to do it without adding significant cost to the product. Also note that boxes which consume less power, run cooler and therefore tend to last longer which also helps the environment in terms of energy consumption in manufacture etc etc...
In the end it has to be a concerted effort between governments, retailers and manufacturers to get the message across to the public that they do have the choice if they want it to consume less power.
Paul Fellows, CEO TVonics Limited
The only notable exception here in The Netherlands are cars and washing machines: they do have energy consumption class rating information attached to the product in showrooms and stores.
I doubt if that does influence decisions in case of a car, which is more about image than anything else, but I'm sure that in case of a washing machine energy consumption does play a mayor part in the consumer's mind when making a purchase decision.
I think that labeling the energy consumption for any electrical device would certainly help to make consumers at least aware of the after-sales cost they have to pay.
And if I ever will buy a setop box, I'll look for your products ;-)
doesn't seem to have a sleep function but even it's hard drive runs
all the time, which is inexcusable.
I've measured it at 21 watts when it's not doing anything.
*Based on 8 cents per kW/H, which is $0.00008 per watt hour * 24 hours * 366 days * 20 watts
there's no incentive for any politician to advocate saving energy
except in an election year so they can say "See? I'm environmentally
friendly!"
It's things like your dishwasher or oven that consume a lot.
__________________________________
R.K.
http://www.Remove-All-Spyware.com/
- Yep
- by foxhound718 February 27, 2006 5:48 PM PST
- Yep. That's exatly what will happen if we're not careful. I'm 12. So guess what happens? The next generation has to deal with the stupity of energy wasters. Not a happy thought.
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