Are there any more appliances in the house that you might want to target to reduce your electricity bill? We’ve gone through the biggest energy consumers, heating and air conditioning, we’ve talked about heating up water as well. If you’ve already made an effort to target those major appliances, you’re doing a good job. You can expect to have a much reduced bill.
Do you watch a lot of TV? Although the popularity of television has been dropping steadily, it should still be targeted. If you’re serious about taking as much off as possible from your electricity bill, you will have considered what you can decrease in terms of your digital entertainment.
We’ll look at the most popular screens that are on the market right now and how much electricity each one uses up:
1. Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) aka old-school televisions
These are the colour televisions that were all the rage in the 80s and early 90s. The bigger ones would weigh up to 15 kilograms. Since digital television is being phased in to replace all these old CRTs, they’re fast becoming an extinct race. That isn’t to say that they’re not still used in a lot of households.
These TVs were actually quite efficient, both in terms of electricity usage and loss of energy through heat. A typical size for CRT TVs back then was about 19 inches. These only use about 80 watts.
2. Plasma TVs
Plasmas brought about a revolution in screen clarity but not at a cost to consumers. They were anywhere from 32 inches to 60 inches and are basically big space and energy hogs. These can potentially use up a lot of electricity indirectly. Why indirectly? The heat produced from using plasma TVs is that phenomenal that you would turn on the air conditioning to cool down a room. You’re looking at 500+ watts… VERY energy hungry.
3. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
These are the most energy conservative out of the three. They can be as big as plasma TVs as well; some typical sizes for LCDs are 32 inches, 42 inches and 52 inches. These LCD sizes use 125, 210 and 280 watts respectively. People don’t really like going for LCDs though because they don’t have the best contrast. In an effort to combat this problem, newer models are built with a backlight.
Obviously, you are going to choose a TV that will suit your needs and priorities. If you’ve come this far with reducing your energy consumption but you love your television, then it doesn’t matter that much if you buy a plasma. As I mentioned earlier, the amount of energy lost from watching TV is minimal relative to the amount of energy that’s used up from heating and air conditioning.
This article is just here to give you an idea of your choices in terms of home entertainment. Note that I haven’t gone over speakers, DVD/BluRay players, etc. They all contribute to your energy bill but again, unless they’re on 24 hours a day, they probably wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
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