Energy efficient, but still using more

Despite attempts at limiting power usage, Americans are using more electricity than ever to keep cool during the hottest days.

…Many household appliances have become more efficient, using less electricity than ever to cool rooms, wash clothes and chill food. But the increasingly wired American home, where outlets are charging cell phones and iPods and powering multiple computers and big-screen TVs, is creating higher demand for power than was the case even a few years ago.

At last count, six of every 10 homes had a computer. In 1992, the number was one in five. Households that once had one TV now have two or three, some with screens four times as large as the typical television twenty years ago, and some requiring a lot of juice.


“Plasma screens use eight to 10 times as much electricity as the TVs they replace,” said Jim Owen, spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota)