Consumers Can Get Smart with Power Bills
Awareness is gradually dawning that there are things individuals can and should do to reduce our contribution to the disasters of climate change. Some are easier than others but many are downright shocking. Who knew - or cared - until recently that turning off the television didn't actually turn off the electricity that powers it?
Ditto all those new gadgets in which we've been revelling just as we should have been waking up to their greater impact. Everything from our telephone chargers (because cellphones are so much more convenient than landlines) to our games equipment (because staying in is the new going out) wastes power and, even more shocking, costs money even when we're not using them.
Awareness has dawned more than gradually that we want - and need - to save money.
The New York Times cited as one example a family of four who discovered, on "the night the family turned off the overhead lights at their home in Maine and began hunting gadgets that glowed in the dark" just how much power they were using. "It was amazing to see all these lights blinking," Peter Troast, the father, said.
Part of the problem is that many modern gadgets cannot entirely be turned off; even when not in use, they draw electricity while they await instructions on what to do next.
Now converted, the Troast family's monthly energy use has been "cut by some 16 percent, partly by plugging computers and entertainment devices into smart power strips that turn off when electronics are not in use, cutting power consumption to zero," according to the Times.
Quantifying the situation, by household, could help put the problem into perspective. The International Energy Agency, for example, says that "worldwide, consumer electronics now represent 15 percent of household power demand, and that is expected to triple over the next two decades." Satisfying the demands of our favorite gadgets would mean having to build "the equivalent of 560 coal-fired power plants, or 230 nuclear plants."
Since efficiency standards for appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines were introduced in the US in 1990, average power consumption has been reduced by anything from 45 to 70 percent on equivalent models. But flat-panel televisions can require more power than some refrigerators and attempts to introduce mandatory limits for electronics have been resisted on grounds of both cost and restrictions to innovation.
Discussion questions: How would you rate the demand for energy-saving devices? Should they be marketed more for environmental or money saving reasons? How amenable are Americans to arguments around products such as smart power strips that initially cost more but save a lot down the road?
[Author's commentary] With effective and relatively inexpensive ways to reduce outgoings of both power and cash increasingly available, perhaps there is an opportunity for retailers to make friends and profits through a bit of well-placed marketing and promotion.