electricity bills

A new study from the International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030, the energy demands of gadgets globally will collectively drain an amount of electricity equivalent to the total power consumption of two of the world's largest developed countries.

According to the intergovernmental organization, consumer gear currently accounts for 15 percent of household electricity consumption, and its share of the total is rapidly rising. Without new policies, noted IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka, the energy consumed by high-tech gear will double by 2022 and increase threefold by 2030.

Photovoltaics are wonderful, but there are some far cheaper ways to harness the power of the sun to do good work for us. Capturing the sun's heat with solar water heaters, for example, is a far cheaper way to reduce your electricity bills than trying to turn that power into electricity.

At the beginning of 2008, the government of Spain (a very sunny country) created a year-long law that required power utilities to buy solar power at premium rates. This made solar power competitive with all other sorts of power...but only for one year.

Just a few years ago, 52 inch televisions didn't exist. Now, thanks to dozens of innovations, they're almost boring, and not even that expensive. Oddly enough, they're more efficient than the old CRT televisions...per square inch. The bad news is, as we've been exponentially increasing the square-footage of our televisions, so have we been exponentially increasing their energy use.

As consumers become increasingly concerned about their energy use and the cost of their energy bills, energy management systems and smart electronics are growing at a rapid pace. The latest to addition to the "smart" revolution? Home appliances.

As consumers become increasingly concerned about their energy use and the cost of their energy bills, energy management systems and smart electronics are growing at a rapid pace. The latest to addition to the "smart" revolution? Home appliances.

Texas likes to do everything big, including wind farms and investing in clean energy. The states has been given the thumbs up for a $4.9 billion plan to set up transmission lines to carry the wind power generated in West Texas to surrounding urban areas.