Americans are buying more gadgets than ever before, but those gadgets are not using more energy collectively. Why not? Well, according to a new report from the research firm Fraunhofer USA, and commissioned by the Consumer Electronics Association, more efficient TV technology and a switch from desktop and laptop computers to tablets, delivered a sizable drop in the total energy use by gadgets in the U.S. in 2013.
That's good news for the argument that technology and innovation can help solve some of the world's most pressing issues, and it also shows how there's considerable room for energy efficiency upgrades for digital devices. A similar situation was discovered for the increasing energy use of the world's data centers. The CEA report is also an indicator that the push for energy efficient standards by government groups (like Energy Star) is working to some extent.
Broken, tossed TV, courtesy of sinada / Shutterstock.
According to the report, there were 3.8 billion consumer electronics used in American homes in 2013, which collectively consumed 169 TWh. In 2010 there were 2.9 billion consumer electronics owned, but those devices consumed collectively 193 TWh, or 12 percent more energy than the number of gadgets in 2013.
The most widely owned consumer electronic device in the U.S. is the television. There are more TVs owned than people in the U.S. with 338 million owned in 2013. So it's not surprising that TVs have long accounted for the biggest energy consumer of our home gadgets, with 30 percent of the total.
But the report estimates that the number of plugged-in TVs -- so TVs currently in use, not just owned -- is down by 50 million (or 14 percent) from 2010 for the first time in over a decade. The conclusion is that Americans are finally unplugging -- or stashing in the garage or basement -- their older TVs that use cathode ray tubes instead of display technologies. The technology is finally dated enough, and significantly worse than the widely used display TVs, that old TVs are just being dumped or ignored.
What ever happened to FreeTime on Fire TV? Image courtesy of Amazon.
This shift from Americans watching old cathode ray tube TVs to LCD TVs is leading to a 20 percent drop in overall TV energy consumption. Ninety percent of TVs sold in 2013 were LCDs. Use per TV actually went up over this time.
Though, once all of the old TVs are ditched or unplugged, this trend could change over the coming years. More Internet connected TVs could actually raise overall energy consumption of TVs because the average use of active mode of Internet-connected TVs is way higher than it is for non-connected TVs. Ie., Internet-connected TVs are "always-on." Currently there's only a 15 percent penetration of Internet-connected TVs.
Together TVs and computers consumed 43 percent of the overall electricity use from U.S. gadgets in 2013. And for computers there was another sizable technology shift happening: the emergence of tablets.
Tablet ownership is up, image courtesy of Thinkstock.
While there's been a 10-fold increase in the ownership of tablets from 4 percent penetration in 2011 to 39 percent in 2013, there's been an overall decrease in the use of desktop and "portable" (laptops and netbooks) computers as well as less use of monitors. Tablets are considerably more energy efficient than desktop and laptop computers, so overall collective computer energy use has dropped by 25 percent since 2010 thanks to tablets.
Tablets have an 8.8 times lower energy use than portable PCs (per unit), but an 11 percent higher install base, says the report. As more and more computing is done by smart phones (not considered computing devices by the report), that energy efficiency trend will continue. The per unit energy consumption of smart phones is lower than tablets.
Other consumer electronics saw some energy efficiency progress due to technology gains in recent years. For video game consoles, recent versions of the PS3 and the Xbox 360 are considerably more energy efficient (65 and 52 percent less power used respectively). For networking devices (modems, routers) the first energy specifications for Energy Star were due in Sept 2013. Set top boxes -- the third largest energy consumer from home gadgets -- are being pushed by a voluntary agreement in December 2012 to lower energy consumption of set top boxes. It's progress for sure.
Overall the use of consumer electronics is growing quickly in the U.S., but it's still not the main energy draw in our homes. That would be the heating and cooling of homes, heating water, and lighting of homes. But consumer electronics collectively consume more energy than refrigeration and cooking in the home.
While the report was done by a third party, Fraunhofer, remember that the Consumer Electronics Agency commissioned it, and CEA has considerable stake in getting more people to buy more gadgets. So keep that in mind if you read the entire thing.