Electric Co-op Today

The expanding popularity of consumer electronic devices has offset much of the energy savings gleaned from energy conservation features in housing construction and energy-efficient appliances.

The proliferation of rechargeable electronic devices in the home is increasing plug loads and offsetting the savings from energy efficiency. (Photo By: U.S. Fire Administration)

Those are among the findings in a study released March 28 by the Energy Information Administration.

“Appliances, heating and cooling equipment now use less energy to provide their services. … At the same time, many homes contain more energy-consuming devices,” EIA said in its Residential Energy Consumption Survey.

While overall energy usage per household fell by 31 percent from 1978 to 2009, the share of electricity use for appliances and electronics almost doubled, from 17 to 31 percent, in the same period.

According to the report, 68 million households now use compact fluorescent light bulbs or light-emitting diode fixtures. Forty-four percent of all households have three or more televisions, and as screen sizes have increased, average energy consumption has risen.

According to the survey, 45 million households, or 40 percent, had a digital video recorder attached to the most-used television in the home. The market penetration of DVRs in 2005 was so low that they were not included in the survey conducted that year. The units are now replacing or supplementing videocassette recorders and DVD players, both of which consume less energy than DVRs.

“Seventy-six percent of the 114 million U.S. households had at least one computer; that’s up eight percentage points from just four years ago,” said James Berry, an EIA survey manager. “Thirty-five percent had multiple computers.”

The findings are the 13th in a series of residential surveys and are developed from data collected from 12,000 households in 16 states in 2009.

“You can compare the energy-consuming characteristics across states, housing types, different levels of income and several other types of metrics,” said Berry. “The data can be useful to utilities, including co-ops, appliance manufacturers and others involved in energy use, conservation and other fields.”

Tags: Efficiency and Conservation, Energy Information Administration, Trends Reports and Analyses