Residential consumer electronics electricity consumption in the United States

Kurt Roth and Kurtis McKenney, TIAX LLC, U.S.A.

Keywords

consumer electronics, home, computer, PC, television, electricity consumption, usage, standby

Abstract

TIAX carried out a study to develop an up-to-date understanding of consumer electronics (CE) energy consumption in U.S. residences in 2006. This study used a bottom-up methodology to characterize the energy consumption of sixteen CE devices in detail and includes preliminary estimates for the annual electricity consumption (AEC) of thirteen other devices. It excludes, however, the energy consumed by digital televisions (DTV) because a standard test procedure that accurately characterizes DTV active mode power draw has yet to be developed. To address uncertainties in prior estimates of CE usage, the study incorporated results from a phone survey to develop more refined and up-to-date estimates for the usage of ten CE devices. In addition, the analyses incorporated numerous measurements of recent vintage CE devices. Excluding DTV, CE consumed about 147 TWh of electricity in U.S. homes in 2006. Analog TVs accounted for 36 percent of the total, PCs and monitors 21 percent, set-top boxes 13 percent, and audio products 12 percent. This translates into about 11 percent of U.S. residential electricity consumption and 4 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption (EIA 2006) and, in primary energy terms, about 7.3 percent and 1.6 percent of residential and total U.S. primary energy consumption, respectively.