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New Evidence of a Decline In Electricity Use By U.S. Households (wordpress.com)
There's some surprising news from the Energy Institute at the University of California's business school. America's households are using less electricity than they did five years ago.
So what is different? Energy-efficient lighting. Over 450 million LEDs have been installed to date in the United States, up from less than half a million in 2009, and nearly 70% of Americans have purchased at least one LED bulb. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) are even more common, with 70%+ of households owning some CFLs. All told, energy-efficient lighting now accounts for 80% of all U.S. lighting sales.
It is no surprise that LEDs have become so popular. LED prices have fallen 94% since 2008, and a 60-watt equivalent LED lightbulb can now be purchased for about $2. LEDs use 85% less electricity than incandescent bulbs, are much more durable, and work in a wide-range of indoor and outdoor settings.
"I would add LED TVs replacing LCD, Plasma and CRTs," writes Slashdot reader schwit1.
It is no surprise that LEDs have become so popular. LED prices have fallen 94% since 2008, and a 60-watt equivalent LED lightbulb can now be purchased for about $2. LEDs use 85% less electricity than incandescent bulbs, are much more durable, and work in a wide-range of indoor and outdoor settings.
"I would add LED TVs replacing LCD, Plasma and CRTs," writes Slashdot reader schwit1.
When they say "I would add LED TVs replacing LCD, Plasma and CRTs" do they mean real ultra-expensive LED TV's, or do they mean those mainstream TV's that use LCD technology but call themselves LED because reasons?
"His name was James Damore."
Will probably shoot back up as more electric vehicles are purchased. Though it will be more night time charging.
Enough with the nerd rage over marketing terms. You should be clever enough to have figured out that "LED TV" is used to mean "LCD TV with an LED backlight instead of CCFL" and OLED TVs are called, well, OLED. The LED backlight is, by the way, not a trivial thing when it comes to power use. If you look at an LCD most of the power it consumes comes from the backlight, with only a bit from the panel itself. So if you replace an older style set that uses CCFL backlights with a newer ones that uses LED backlights, you cut power consumption by a non-trivial amount.
Here is a chart of electricity prices in America since 1960. When corrected for inflation, prices today are about the same as 50 years ago. So, no, I don't think there has been any vast conspiracy to raise prices.
I have cut my consumption by about 40% in the last ten years. Since California has tiered pricing, and all my consumption is in the bottom tier (about 10 cents/kw-hr), my electricity bill is less than half what it was in 2007.
All my lights are LED.
All TVs and monitors went from CRT to flatscreen.
New more efficient refrigerator.
New dishwasher with air drying.
Attic fan to reduce need for A/C.
Ceiling fans in all bedrooms.
Clip fans under every desk.
All outside lights triggered by motion sensors.
And by far the biggest energy saver: Teenage daughter moved and and went to college.
The number of people in an average household has decreased. It's not surprising that fewer individuals use less electricity.
Well prices are expected to go up over time due to inflation. The real problem is that wages have been stagnant, and haven't kept pace with inflation.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
Costco has a ten-pack of LED bulbs for $4.95. That is 50 cents each. At that price, the payback for typical use is less than ONE MONTH when replacing incandescents. LED bulbs have none of the drawbacks of CFLs. They are instantly bright, they are durable (I dropped one 8 feet onto a concrete floor, and it bounced), and they contain no toxic mercury.
My house now has exactly one incandescent bulb: In my son's lava lamp, where a dim hot bulb is exactly what is needed.
They're surprisingly nice, too! I can hardly distinguish their light from a real 60 watt incandescent. Not like the original CFLs that gave everything a strange tint
The key is to make sure you get the right color temperature. For the "soft-white" look that everyone loves from incandescents, you want 2700K.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
If her phone was using an emissive LED tech, such as the Galaxy S7's OLED display (and a fairly long list of others), a black screen does use less energy.
It's only LCD displays with LED backlights that behave as you describe.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I think it's all supposed to trickle down somehow.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
Most Americans pay less for electricity than anywhere else in the world and are wasteful of it as a result.
I recently had to put in a maintenance request to have the florescent tubes in the light fixture over the bathroom sink. I told the maintenance guy that there must be something wrong with the light fixture, as the tubes only last two to six months before needing replacement again. I got CFLs over my kitchen table that are 5+ years old. The maintenance guy laughed and told me that this was by design. If the florescent tubes go out every six months, maintenance — and the leasing office, indirectly — will have two opportunities each year to get into each apartment to look for problems not being reported.
You are understating the costs a whole lot. $1500 isn't what it costs to do a good job insulating a home. You can spend that on a single good window. It costs quite a bit to get a well made window with two (or three) panes of low-e glass, filled with an inert gas, and so on and then of course you have to pay to have the old one cut out and the new one installed. You can get something much lesser quality and just drop it in the existing thin frame for a good bit less, but you don't get the big efficiency gains unless you do it right and have ti really redone.
So on a normal house with some big windows and sliding glass doors you can hit $5-10k easily just in redoing your glass.
Walls are another matter. Depending on the construction of your house, it can me pretty to very costly to insulate your walls. If you have something that is drywall mounted straight on concrete block, there's nowhere to insert insulation. You have to either tear down the drywall, add in framing, insulate in that, and put up new drywall (which also cuts down on the size of rooms) or tear off the exterior facade, add insulation, and put up a new one. Either way it's 5 figures to do.
It's a lot of money to renovate an old home and make it energy efficient.
I know you're trolling, but....
If it bothers you THAT much, just go off grid. Solar panels plus some batteries and a "lender of last resort" propane generator. You'll sleep soundly knowing you're not being fucked by the man even though you're probably now paying more for your electrons.
Well prices are expected to go up over time due to inflation. The real problem is that wages have been stagnant, and haven't kept pace with inflation.
From year to year I think inflation and CPI is an okay measure. Over long stretches of time, well... according to some measures the US middle class hasn't improved at all since the 1970s. But if you took a family from 1970 and transported them to 2017, would they want to go back? There's no internet. No PCs. No cell phones. No digital cameras. Maybe there's lots of things you'd spend money on in 1970 that doesn't really make any sense in 2017. There will be things in 2017 that no money can buy in 1970, what's the value of that? Average lifespan has gone up from 71 to 79 years, what's 8 more years of life worth? That you get more money and spend more money is hardly the only valid way to quantify life.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
You realize those high tax states subsidize the low tax states...?
As the use of LED's and electric cars spreads (which is inevitable) we'll reduce energy usage even further - all without a single punishing act of legislation.
The green energy push has had significant help from government regulations and subsidies, which is why they exist. Appropriate regulation improves quality of life, and this is no different. In a real free market we'd still be living industrial age smog and air pollution.
I can't tolerate temperatures above 22 degrees. I have to turn on AC if it goes higher. Ideally I like it to be 15 degrees inside of my house at all times.
Let me guess, your BMI is above 30?
Fat people have a thicker layer of insulation and overheat easier. The volume to surface area ratio also means that perspiration has less of a cooling effect.
Fortunately, something can be done about it besides turning on an air conditioner.
For those of us who live in hot / temperate places where air conditioning is a way of life, going to LED lights and LED-backlit TVs have a knock-on effect -- much less energy is wasted as heat - heat that then has to be dealt with by the air conditioning systems.
Surely the power companies knew this was coming, right?
On a related tangent, I'm old enough to remember the first wave of solar euphoria euphoria in the 70's. That wave really didn't go anywhere fast. Solar panels aren't efficient enough to power tungsten and CRT, and fluorescent lighting isn't that much more efficient.. but with LED? Yeah, solar now really does have a chance.. but not because solar.. but because LED... oh and modern batteries / capacitors to hold stored energy.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
It's a socialist state in denial. I blame a generation getting intensive cold war propaganda: They know that socialism is evil, oppressive and unamerican, they just don't know what socialism actually means.
LED bulbs have high-voltage power electronics in there. By quality (e.g. Philips,
Can't emphasise this enough. The LEDs themselves will be fine probably in cheap brands, but the power supply won't be. Good SMPSs are expensive to design and make. There's no substiture worth it.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Watching the moon landing was epic!
Costco has a ten-pack of LED bulbs for $4.95.
Do they last? The glass globes have fallen off about half of my original cree lights. Oddly the light I have which has lasted the longest is a CFL. I have it over the stove, where you would expect it to die rapidly. Nope. It's outlasted two LED lamps and countless incandescents. I put it in there on a whim to see if it would last any better than the other options, and yes. Yes it does.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Also end-stage capitalism.
Basically, totalitarianism is end-stage [insert soio-economic system here], for the simple reason that wealth and power are self-catalyzing, and so *any* system that allows individuals to accumulate them without restriction, via any means, will eventually end up concentrating enough wealth and power into the hands of the few that they no longer need to concern themselves with the opinions of the masses.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
If wage disparity were reduced to 1970's levels
I don't get why people care so much about wage disparity. What does it matter how much richer than you the richest are? What matters is how you live, and the average -- or even bottom tier -- person in the 2010s lives longer, eats better, is less likely to suffer violence, has a larger home, has cleaner air and water, etc., etc., etc., for almost any variable you can name than someone in the same position 40 years earlier.
Why the focus on comparing your position to that of others, rather than appreciating what you have?
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Yes, there are illnesses that can cause overheating, but that's not the general case. Healthy people should be able to deal with 12-30C temperature ranges without any real problems, and if it is a problem beyond "it would be nicer if it were cooler/warmer", seeing a doctor should be the first thing to do, not buying an AC.
Saunas (Nordic ones that are actually in the 90-100C range) work because your body goes into a special mode, restricting blood flow to the surface. It's possible to sit with teeth clattering because of being cold in a hot sauna, because of the full insulation retaining the internal chill from your cold shower or snow roll for quite a while.
The cooler American-style "saunas" that's only in the 50-70 C range are more problematic, because they're not hot enough for the body to enter this state. So you end up like a red lobster. Even more so because of the aversion to nakedness causing Americans to cover themselves with towels or bathing suits, reducing the cooling effect of profuse sweating. Add that they're below the dew point, so benches won't be dry but covered with hot moisture. It's an uncomfortable experience compared to a real sauna, and I'm sure temperature sensitive individuals can have a hard time with them.