Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In late 2009, this was the largest plasma screen TV panel commercially available:
a whopping 103 inches.
munication technologies (ICT) and consumer electronics (CE) currently
account for around fifteen percent of global residential electricity con-
sumption - and that this would double by 2022 and triple by 2030. By this
last date the bill for this electricity use could be $200bn, or the current
residential electricity consumption of the US and Japan combined.
Growing global ownership of consumer electronics is, in principle,
a good thing if it improves people's welfare and quality of life around
the world. Many traditional electronic items are now cheaper to buy
and cheaper to run. New refrigerators use much less power than the old
models. But new scales are being found for traditional items. The liquid
crystal display (LCD) TV screens may use less energy than the cathode
ray tube monitors they are replacing, but they don't if they are twice the
size. Of course, large-screen TVs are not just used for television broad-
casts, but to display video games and DVDs. So it is not surprising that
TV sales around the world are actually growing faster than the number
of households gaining access to electricity.
Around one billion people now use a computer. Faster access to the
Internet through broadband is high on the political agenda of many gov-
ernments. Broadband makes it quicker to get a given piece of information
off the Internet - but also makes it more tempting to stay on the Internet