Several years ago, my husband and I downsized and moved into a 740 square foot loft. To save space, we sold all of our furniture and replaced it with furniture made specifically for small spaces. We also traded in our large, clunky TV for a flat screen.
I could tell then, and I can definitely tell now that the TV is in a small room, that the flat screen TV gives off some major heat! During the day, if the TV has been on for over 30 minutes I can actually feel the room getting warmer. That give me major incentive not to keep that TV on unless we are actually sitting down and watching it…especially in the summer.
Observing the temperature change when the flat screen TV is in use has always made me curious just how much energy it uses. So I did some digging and found a Television Calculator that compares the energy use of Plasma, DLP, LCD, and different sized Tube TV’s. It takes into consideration how many hours each stays on during the week and weekends and then calculates how much it costs you to provide energy to watch.
It appears that energy use is greater in Plasma TV’s followed by DLP, LCD and then tube TV’s. As expected, a larger television also uses more energy than a smaller TV.
Of course, this doesn’t include the cost of providing air conditioning to cool down that room your television is heating up. That’s just one more thing to consider!
Being an informed consumer can definitely impact your purchase choices. It can also help anyone become just a little more green, without much effort.
I don’t know about you, but I will take energy usage into consideration the next time I’m in the market for a television. It also has and will continue to impact the amount of television watched in our home as well as cut out the tendency to have it on as background noise.
How much does it cost you to watch TV?
Want more money saving tips?
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- The Frugal Seed is helping us understand How To Save Money When Buying Organic.
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iDreamOfClean
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Something else to consider in the cost of having a TV is all of those commercials. It may not matter as much when you don’t have kids, but when we got rid of our TV I noticed the added benefit of the kids not seeing/wanting all of those things they would see on commercials.
AMEN!
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