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Researchers find that users do not get rid of their old technology when buying new and use more power
Researchers find that users do not get rid of their old technology when buying new and use more power
A trio of researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology has found that despite dramatically reduced power requirements for new electronic gadgets, the average American home consumes more power than ever—because consumers keep using the old-school technology devices, along with the new, adding to the total number of devices used. In their paper published in Environmental Science and Technology, Erinn Ryen, Callie Babbitt and Eric Williams describe how they looked at gadgets in the average American home as an ecosystem made up of electronic virtual organisms and what they found in doing so.
To find out what happens as technology marchers forward, with a never-ending stream of new product introductions for consumers to buy, the researchers scoured publicly available databases that hold consumer buying habits and trend information. They also searched for and found consumer reports and survey information data that has been harvested over the years. Putting it all together, the team created their "ecosystem" for the years 1992 to 2007, a span that saw cathode ray television sets begin to give way to those based on LCD's, among other developments.
In looking at all their data, the team found that Americans do not get rid of old gadgets just because they buy new ones—instead the old devices get moved to other locales, where they are still used. Buying a new big-screen, flat TV, for example, typically meant moving the old CRT model to the kid's room. That caused the average number of electronic devices in American homes to skyrocket from an average of four, in 1992, to thirteen in 2007. The problem with that, the researchers report, is that older CRT TVs and other devices use far more electricity than new sets based on LCDs. Also, older TV sets (and other devices) typically were not sold with energy saving features, such as timers that turned them off after a certain time period. The result is more energy use, and more strain on the environment as utilities burn more coal in attempting to keep up with the demand. The researchers found that in addition to having more devices, users tended to use them more—the advent of video games for example, has led to more time spent staring at a screen.
The researchers than went one step further, calculating how much energy would be saved if Americans replaced their legacy devices with new more efficient equipment, and found it came to a whopping 44 percent. They note that adding new features to such devices in the future could cut consumption even more—such as combining capabilities. Since it does not look like consumers are going to change their habits, it appears average consumption will not come down till the old devices fail, they conclude.
- TAMS SEMICONDUCTOR LIMITED
To find out what happens as technology marchers forward, with a never-ending stream of new product introductions for consumers to buy, the researchers scoured publicly available databases that hold consumer buying habits and trend information. They also searched for and found consumer reports and survey information data that has been harvested over the years. Putting it all together, the team created their "ecosystem" for the years 1992 to 2007, a span that saw cathode ray television sets begin to give way to those based on LCD's, among other developments.
In looking at all their data, the team found that Americans do not get rid of old gadgets just because they buy new ones—instead the old devices get moved to other locales, where they are still used. Buying a new big-screen, flat TV, for example, typically meant moving the old CRT model to the kid's room. That caused the average number of electronic devices in American homes to skyrocket from an average of four, in 1992, to thirteen in 2007. The problem with that, the researchers report, is that older CRT TVs and other devices use far more electricity than new sets based on LCDs. Also, older TV sets (and other devices) typically were not sold with energy saving features, such as timers that turned them off after a certain time period. The result is more energy use, and more strain on the environment as utilities burn more coal in attempting to keep up with the demand. The researchers found that in addition to having more devices, users tended to use them more—the advent of video games for example, has led to more time spent staring at a screen.
The researchers than went one step further, calculating how much energy would be saved if Americans replaced their legacy devices with new more efficient equipment, and found it came to a whopping 44 percent. They note that adding new features to such devices in the future could cut consumption even more—such as combining capabilities. Since it does not look like consumers are going to change their habits, it appears average consumption will not come down till the old devices fail, they conclude.
- TAMS SEMICONDUCTOR LIMITED