Rising number of electronics offsets efficiency gains

While most home appliances have become more efficient over the past 30 years, the average US household today uses many more consumer electronics than before  — in particular, personal computers, televisions and related devices, according to data released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in the latest update to its Residential Energy Consumption Survey.

Notable trends in household energy characteristics include:

• 58 per cent of US homes had energy-efficient, multi-pane windows, up from 36 per cent in the 1993 survey;
• 76 per cent of the 114 million U.S. homes had at least one computer, eight percentage points more than just four years prior;
• 35 per cent had multiple computers
• 68 million homes have energy-efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) or light-emitting diode (LED) lights;
• 44 per cent of all US homes had three or more televisions. Screen size and average energy consumption per television continue to grow;

This new information on the ways energy is used in American homes is the first release of 2009 data from the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), which the EIA has conducted periodically since 1979.

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