Wednesday, October 31, 2007

How to avert the impending energy crisis

Today's Guardian leads with a story on how Britain faces a gas and electricity shortfall this winter (see here). This is just another example of how no common sense is being applied to this problem. When it comes to electricity, how about introducing some rationing? Instead of swathes of people being unable to boil or kettle or switch on a light, how about asking people to stop buying energy guzzling luxuries like plasma-screen TVs?

I briefly toyed with buying an LCD TV the other day before my greenometer kicked in. I checked the power consumption of a 15- and 19-inch model and was pleased to see it was 29 and 43 watts respectively. This compares favourably with existing conventional TVs, but even more favourably with plasma-screen TVs, some of which gobble up to 10 times as much.

Imagine if people were clued into energy efficiency with a strong lead from our pathetic government - companies would be forced to produce TVs that don't waste electricity and we'd not be staring down the barrel of a gun this winter as a result. Sadly, I suspect few people would be willing to forego watching The Sound of Music on their HD TV so their neighbours won't have to forego the essentials of life.

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