These days when customers walk into electronics stores, the first question they ask is how much electricity the fridge, washing machine or laptop computer they are contemplating buying consumes. “Energy savings were not exactly a hot topic among customers last year,” said Kim Dong-han at South Korean electronics retailer Hi-Mart. “But this year, nine out of 10 people ask point blank whether a product will help them save money.” With oil at around $145 a barrel and electricity costs jumping, consumers are becoming preoccupied with keeping down their power bills. Electronics makers that develop energy-efficient product lines and market them effectively to customers may get an edge in a gloomy global economy, firms say. “Going green is not only eco-friendly but crucial for business,” said Kim Jik-soo, a spokesman at LG Electronics Inc. “This goes beyond just products, extending throughout the development and manufacturing process.” From washing machines that use steam instead of hot water, to fridges that use low-energy compressors, to low power computer screens, electronics firms are furiously developing energy efficient products and heavily promoting lines already on the market that use less electricity than competitors' brands. “My electricity bill more than doubles in the summer as we turn on the air conditioner,” said Park Yu-jin, 32, a housewife in Seoul with two kids. “I also have to do lots of laundry for the kids. The bill now easily tops 170,000 won ($162) a month.” Homemakers such as Park are increasingly buying front-load washing machines, which use gravity to move water instead of agitators as in top loaders. And now, newfangled washers from LG Electronics Inc and Whirlpool Corp offer an option to use steam instead of hot water, cutting water and power use by more than 70 percent compared with some top-load models. “We will gradually shift to front loaders and the steam technology will become more mainstream,” said LG spokesman Kim. LG expects four out of 10 frontload washers it sells in North America to use steam technology by the end of this year, compared with two out of ten currently. Their biggest appliance plant in South Korea makes mostly front loaders, while recently built plants such as one in Russia have stopped manufacturing top loaders altogether. Among refrigerators, which consume 30 percent of overall power in a typical home, traditional compressors are giving way to linear compressors that use up to 40 percent less power and make less noise. In the computing industry, power-saving has long been a key priority as bigger and hungrier gadgets challenge battery life. PC makers from Apple Inc. to the Lenovo Group are replacing screens lit by conventional cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) with light emitting diode (LED) displays. “LED saves up to 40 percent of the power used in traditional backlights,” said Jeff Kim, an analyst at Hyundai Securities. “Next year they will be commonly found in notebook screens, and will be increasingly used in TV panels from 2010.” Market researcher DisplaySearch expects LED-backlit displays to account for 50 percent of notebook panels in 2010, up from 12 percent this year. By 2015, all laptop displays will use LEDs, generating sales of $6 billion.
