Community Newsletter: Q&A: Environmental impact concerns of consumer electronics

There is no "probably"

In reply to: Environmental impact concerns of consumer electronics by Lee Koo (ADMIN) 

Rebbecca,

There is no "probably" about this. Plasma and LCD TVs DO consume more power than traditional CRT sets. And there ARE Energy Star devices across the board. www.energystar.gov is the official Energy Star website, and they define an Energy Star product as one that uses 30% less power than the average appliance. One of the struggles, according to the website, is that as we are using more and more devices more frequently, Energy Star has had to tighten its specifications to meet the new usage patterns. So part of the reason why you don't see many Energy Star devices is that they are redefining what is needed to earn the rating (unlike something like fridges and freezers, whose usage really hasn't changed much). The other reason is simple economics: if people don't see the value of the Energy Star seal or aren't willing to pay for it, they'll buy the cheaper model.


So what can you do when purchasing electronics? Energy Star has a great computer website, http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=CO which allows you to enter your technical specifications and find an Energy Star computer. Another way to "go green" when purchasing a computer is to intentionally buy a lower-performance machine. Most people probably don't need a 250GB hard drive, a quad-core processor, and all those other bells and whistles (even though the sales rep will try and sell you up to that model when you tell him you want to do "basic" photo editing). Of course, you want to make sure you can grow into your computer so you don't have to keep buying new equipment, so find a good balance.

TVs are a bit more difficult. CRTs use the least amount of energy, followed by LCD, and plasma is the power hog. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens will be coming out on more devices; they are thin, light, bright, bendable, and comparatively power-efficient, though currently it isn't feasible to put them on larger screens. You'll probably see more of them in cell phones, PDAs, and laptops. So if you want a power efficient TV that has great picture, a good-quality LCD would be your best bet.

The best thing you can do to conserve power is to turn of electronic equipment when not in use for longer periods of time. Another thing that most people don't realize is consuming power is "standby power." Standby power keeps your devices like TVs just barely turned off so that they can turn on and be fully warmed up at a moment's notice. Other devices like VCRs, DVRs, microwaves, and video game systems that have internal clocks, timers, or connect to the internet for updates while you're not using them are also consuming standby power. You can reduce standby power consumption by hooking several items into a power strip and turning the strip off when not in use. Be careful of two things: first, if you are using a surge protector, turning it off might disable surge protection while keeping a circuit available for surges to follow, and second, disconnecting power like this will probably reset things like your clock, recording times, and other settings, so don't turn off items whose settings you can't afford to lose. Wall warts also consume a fair bit of standby power, so hook up a power strip to those and turn them off as well. No point in having your cell phone and iPod chargers sucking up power while you're at work (they consume very little power, but over the course of a year, it adds up).

Of course, there are also the standard-fare things like switching to CFL lights (though LEDs will become cheaper, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly in the coming years), but you were asking more on the electronics level, so that's where I'm focusing. If you can live with a slightly less-high-end TV or computer that's more power-friendly, that will help a lot.