EnerBLOG

One of the most discussed benefits of smart grid technology is increased visibility into energy consumption and its ability to decrease energy use. But behavioral change is only part of the path to a greener future. Increasingly, we’ll have to consider the energy consumption of devices as we purchase them. Just as today the fuel economy of a vehicle is an important specification, perhaps even the primary consideration, when in the market for a new car, energy prices and financial opportunities (e.g. DR programs) may elevate the importance of efficiency when we shop for new appliances and technology.

While dimmable lighting ballasts and intelligent refrigerators encourage conservation through increased access to demand response opportunities, there are simpler and cheaper things we can all buy to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions: stop buying energy hogs. But when is the last time you compared the energy consumption of two coffee machines, stereos, or refrigerators?

I considered this question as I recently stumbled across what I believe is a new feature on the technology website CNET - their product reviews now include statistics on energy consumption. Perhaps this is a result of the increased awareness of electricity-gobbling TVs or general consumer consciousness about climate change, but regardless of the reason(s), it’s good news.

Take a look at this Gateway computer review, posted a few days ago:

“We use a lengthened version of our multimedia multitasking (MMT) benchmark to judge a PC’s power consumption under load, and while it’s not designed to overwhelm a quad-core CPU like the one in the Gateway, the Gateway’s efficiency is no less impressive. Consider that the Gateway outperformed every other system in this category on the MMT benchmark by a large margin, but that it also used the second lowest amount of power on that same test. If you were to consistently run programs on this Gateway that ran on all four processing cores, its annual power consumption cost would likely increase, but for mainstream tasks, the more common work scenario for a PC in this price range, the Gateway demonstrates commendable efficiency.”

CNET has a slightly different test for TVs that illustrates consumption in different picture settings, similar to the computer’s test at different levels of usage:

What’s particularly valuable about the CNET reviews is that they put energy consumption in real terms. Consumers think in dollars, not watts or kilowatt-hours. Even if the assumptions in the CNET calculations differ from how you’d use a device, presenting the data in the units that they do ultimately makes the information more tangible, and I’d presume, more likely to impact a purchasing decision.