The UK’s tech love-affair has the capacity to add an extra £100 per year to each household’s electricity bills according to a report in the Guardian.
Particular culprits include plasma televisions, high-end PCs and mobile phones (which need to be constantly recharged).
These three devices alone currently account for 25 per cent of the electricity we each use but this is expected to rise to around 45 per cent by 2020.
At today’s electricity prices, this will cause a jump in bills from just under £140 per annum to £237.
The Guardian report also included a few gadget energy facts. Ever given much thought to this:
"¢ The first plasma-screen televisions used up to three times as much electricity as the standard CRT ones they replaced. Newer models tend to be slightly more efficient, but still use a considerable amount of power.
"¢ Newer TVs do more things – modern ones can also incorporate a set-top box to receive digital channel signals and can also be used to play digital radio. Traditionally, listening to radio has been a low-energy pastime but can become an energy-intensive one using modern TVs.
"¢ Electrical products such as DVD players and hard disk recorders can be left on 24 hours a day as standby functions are used rather than the “off” button. Some products no longer have a manual “off” switch, making it impossible to switch them off except at the wall socket.
"¢ A home office can contain a power-hungry desktop computer with a big screen, a printer, a scanner and a fax. Most are generally left on standby, with printers particularly inefficient in their resting state.
So the moral of the story? Well from the consumer’s point of view, we can be just that bit more vigilant in turning our electronics off at the wall instead of leaving everything on standby. Certain devices such as the Wattson Energy Monitor will also give you regular reports of which household gadgets are costing you the most to run.
For manufacturers, new devices need to take into account energy ratings. It’s heartening to see a number of big names have taken this on board. Samsung’s series 7 TV range is an example of this new wave of eco-development.
Ultimately though, there are more electricity-guzzling products on the market than green ones, and it’s up to us to read the energy consumption print relatively carefully, or risk spending more than we expected to in the future.
Source: Guardian
2 thoughts on “Our Love for Gadgets Sends Electricity Bills Soaring”
Wow! Those figures do offer us cause for concern but if you’re a gadget fanatic like me, then I am not too sure if I would ditch using my gadgets altogether to save on the electricity bill but I will make a concious effort to be more careful. I bought my eco loving colleague the eco button last Christmas and it was great. It definitely shows you that every little helps! Check out the post here:
https://www.gaj-it.com/716/ecobutton-save-the-planet-and-your-money/