I feel like we are living in a world that is obsessed with power and efficiency. It all started with the industrial revolution and the ideas that made factory lines efficient. Each factory worker had a station on the factory line and their task was to do the same thing over and over again. By setting up the tasks in this manner, workers became extremely efficient at performing their task, thus enabling the factory line to move at a higher speed. Now it is a bit different, as the current culture is that we will not settle for a lower amount of power but we also don’t want to pay for it, whether that is in gasoline or electricity does not matter.

“Global Warming” is certainly another reason for the obsession of efficiency, ideally to reduce carbon emissions. One thing that this culture has caused is more standard setting organizations to be created. For computer power supplies, we have the 80 Plus group which certifies PSUs based on their efficiency rating from 80% minimum all the way up to a platinum rating with a 94% maximum efficiency. They don’t just take the manufacturer's word for granted either, they push the power supplies to their max to ensure that they really meet their set standards.