Study: Mobile Electronic Devices Are Energy Vampires

That's some of the findings from a new study, "Gadgets and Gigawatts" that was presented Thursday by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. The report is a global assessment of changing patterns in residential electricity consumption over the past decade and an analysis of electronic equipment electricity consumption of laptops, mobile phones, TVs and other devices.

Although electronic devices currently account for just 15 percent of household electricity consumption, that number is rapidly rising, according to the IEA.

The IEA found that more than half of the global population subscribes to mobile phone services, and the number of external power supplies that are associated with many electronic devices is more than 5.5 billion.

"Electronic devices are a growing part of our lives and many of us can count between 20 and 30 separate items in our homes, from major items like televisions to a host of small gadgets," said Nobuo Tanaka, IEA executive director, in a statement.

However, the energy drain can be cut by more than 50 percent by using energy-efficient technologies, according to the report.

A decrease in energy could come by using better equipment and components. But an even bigger barrier to energy monsters could be derived from educating consumers to only use devices when they are needed.

"Without new policies, the energy consumed by information and communications technologies as well as consumer electronics will double by 2022 and increase threefold by 2030," the report said. "This will jeopardize efforts to increase energy security and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases."

With that in mind, the IEA is calling on governments to educate consumers and implement policies for energy-efficient products.

Such policies could slow growth in consumption to less than 1 percent per year through 2030, and represent energy saving in consumer bills by more than $130 billion in 2030, according to the report.