Gadgets have become more efficient at using juice, but it's no good if we have more gadgets around than ever before. A study in England has found that electronic toys around the house will account for half the nation's electricty needs by 2020.
This doesn't even include kitchen appliances, the current main drain, or household lighting. The report, titled "The Ampere Strikes Back" and published by the Energy Saving Trust, offers at least one head-explodey revelation: 1.4 percent of all domestic electricity use is accounted for by television sets on standby.
What can you do about it? One trick is to simply use accessible, high-capacity power strips, and turn them off when possible. Another is to pick up a power-outlet coupler that shows how much power is being sucked out the wall by the appliance thusly coupled in — use it to track down inefficient consumables. Finally, buy a vast army of hamsters and utilize their collective power to run a turbine in the basement. Bonus: never go hungry.
.png){kind=logo}
