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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.
LCD TVs using LED backlights were dubbed "LED TVs" to distinguish them from the original batch of LCD TVs which used CCFL backlights.
Will probably shoot back up as more electric vehicles are purchased. Though it will be more night time charging.
Every time I heard "plasma something" on Star Trek, the hardware in question ended up exploding.
Plasma TV? No thanks.
#DeleteFacebook
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.
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.