Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to create a better real-time match between supply and demand - shifting
peak demand to off-peak times and so making it easier to satisfy.
Saving it on the old, blowing it on the new.
Enormous progress has been made in recent years in increasing the
energy efficiency of traditional household appliances. This is true even
in the US, where tax and price pressures have hardly been the strongest.
For instance, the average American refrigerator in 1972 was around 18
cubic feet in size and consumed 1986 kilowatt hours a year; by 2001 the
average US fridge, whose size had by this time grown to 24 cubic feet,
was consuming 1239 kilowatt hours a year. Despite increasing by a third
in size, and upping its efficiency, the price of the average fridge had come
down thirty percent over this period due to technological improvements.
However, much of the electricity saved on traditional items has been
blown on consumption of the new goods and services made possible by
the digital revolution.
Televisions
According to the International Energy Agency, more TV sets are being
sold around the world than ever before, at a growth rate of 3.7 percent
a year. This is faster than growth in the number of households gaining
access to electricity (two percent a year), so evidently the number of TV
sets per household is rising globally. Furthermore, liquid crystal display
(LCD) panels and plasma screens have fast replaced the much older
cathode ray tube (CRT) screens, and generally speaking, these screens are
much larger. The Energy Saving Trust has pointed out that plasma-screen
TVs typically consume four times as much energy as their predecessors.
Computers
Nearly one billion people use computers, and computer sales are still ris-
ing. Not only is the number of households with a computer growing, but
the number of personal computers is also increasing. Increasing broad-
band Internet access has, understandably become a priority government
in many countries. But broadband has also encouraged people to spend
much more time on the Internet - more than watching television and
much more than reading newspapers or magazines.
 
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