Americans use same amount of energy at home as in 1971

Washington Post – The amount of energy that the average American requires at home has changed little since the early 1970s — despite advances in technology that have made many home appliances far more energy efficient.

…A key reason, experts say, is that American homes are getting bigger, which means more space to heat and cool. And consumers are buying more and more power-sucking gadgets — meaning that kilowatts saved by dishwashers and refrigerators are often used up by flat-screen televisions, computers and digital video recorders.

These trends “have balanced each other out. It’s been a wash, basically,” said Lowell Ungar of the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy.

Saving energy is easier than making more of it. Increasing energy efficiency is called the low-hanging fruit in the effort to cut emissions as well as imports of foreign fuel without harming the economy.

Last year, the consulting firm McKinsey and Co. estimated that by 2020 the United States could cut its projected energy use 23 percent by implementing efficiency measures and that about one-third of that change could happen in homes.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 5 to 10 percent of a home’s energy use comes from “vampire losses” — devices such as cellphone chargers, DVRs and computer power supplies that remain plugged in and draw power even when set to “off.”

An average digital cable box with a DVR built in, for instance, draws 43 watts when in “off” mode — more than a 40-watt light bulb when it’s on.

Tanner said he doesn’t spend much time trying to dissuade customers from indulging their love of gadgets. He said set-top boxes that receive cable signals or record TV shows often suck power all day long.

“You tell them to turn off their cable box or their video box,” he said. But then “they crank it on and they lose five minutes when it’s warming up. That’s the last time they’re going to do that.”

Residences account for about 22 percent of all the energy used in the country, a total that includes both electricity use and fuels burned for home heating such as oil, natural gas and coal.

Since the late 1970s, U.S. government statistics show the use of heating fuels declining and electricity use edging up: In 1978, electricity counted for about 23 percent of an average household’s energy use; in 2005, the number was 42 percent.

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