Most people have one or more flat-screen televisions in their home. If you have ever touched one when it has been switched on for a few hours you will have noticed that it can get pretty warm.
An electronic device giving off heat is wasting energy and feeding your electric bill. Especially as the screens get bigger and brighter that has become a factor to consider in our present economy.
A recent study shows that about 10% of energy used in a home is for powering the televisions. You can make the calculation and see it adds up to quite a few dollars a year.
The major manufacturers of flat-screens have come up with new models to solve this problem.
The newest “eco LCD TV” from Sharp, the Aquos D series, feel quite cool when you touch them.
Sony came out with the new Bravia VE5 models and claims a 40% reduction in electric consumption because they have:
- a new type of backlight
- a motion sensor that turns it off when nobody is in the room
- a light sensor to adapt to ambient light
- an easy OFF switch, not just standby mode
Panasonic is the market leader in plasma TVs and is also following this eco-televison trend. Their newest line , the Viera V series is using 48% less power than the earlier generation.
In the coming years we can expect more eco friendly TV sets with OLED-screen, which do not use backlighting and laser technology which will be even more energy conserving.
The prices of LCD and plasma TVs have been declining for the past few years and will continue to do so. Especially in the current economic climate where consumers are more reluctant to buy high ticket items, it remains to be seen if this move by the manufacturers will be succesful.
When buying a new TV set you should not only look at the ticket price but you should also consider the energy cost over the lifetime of the TV. You could be saving money with the more expensive green TV and feel less guilty on top.
Tags:eco friendly TV·eco LCD TV
October 26th, 2008 · biofuels
How well are corn fuel and sugar ethanol doing in the struggle to reduce America’s dependance on foreign oil?
Big companies are losing money converting corn to ethanol in spite of government subsidies (read taxpayer money) for ethanol fuels which are usually a blend with gasoline.
The impact on greenhouse gases is minimal. In theory the advantage over fossil fuels is that plants will absorb CO2 as they grow. It is then released again when burning the fuel, so this should be a carbon neutral process.
But in reality it depends on the efficiency of the production process. If you burn coal to create electricity that is used by an ethanol plant then the net emission of greenhouse gases could be higher than if you just burned gasoline. And then you still have to produce fertilizers.
The US is still highly dependent on foreign oil. American oil imports have fallen but you cannot attribute that to biomass ethanol production alone. Drivers are more conscious about there driving habits and new cars get more fuel efficient.
As always people disagree on the impact of higher demand for corn on food prices. While wholesale prices are skyrocketing the retail cost is also influenced by labor and energy needs.
Of course if you live in a corn growing state like Iowa or Illinois you may enjoy the growth of jobs and businesses around you.
Livestock producers argue that rising corn prices are making it harder for them to make a profit.
To counter this a lot of research is being done on the use of other crops. Switch grass has been proposed as an alternative and so is waste material. The progress in developing cellulose ethanol is very slow though. Another option is improving the corn variants so the contain more sugar.
In Brazil biofuels have been produced from sugar cane in much more efficient ways since many years. To protect their own struggling farmers the US are subjecting imports of foreign ethanol to high tariffs as opposed to the subsidies for the home grown variant. But that is a whole different political discussion.
You can read more about the politics and business interests surrounding biofuels at http://www.ft.com/indepth/ethanol .
Tags:corn fuel·sugar ethanol
June 2nd, 2008 · biofuels
Biofuels are one way of reducing the world’s dependency on petrol. It will be difficult to reach high volumes soon but as with all efforts, every little bit helps.
It’s not all good news though. A big controversy is building on the influence this is having on the world food prices. Already prices of agricultural crops have gone up substantially in the last 12 months.
You can make ethanol from corn, then mix it with gasoline to drive your car. More corn is needed because it is also used to feed the cattle in the US and Europe. So it changes from a low value commodity into a high value renewable energy source.
The same is happening with palm oil which is a basic cooking ingredient in most of Asia. More and more plantations are being seen as fuel farms because the oil is mixed into a biodiesel and prices of palm oil is becoming a problem for low-income residents.
biofuel or food?
Some other voices: A Swedish bus company ‘Flygbussarna Airport Coaches’ is advertising their transition to environmental biofuel using some funny pictures.
Flygbussarna Airport Coaches wants you to know that they now run on environmental biofuel. To illustrate how clean this biofuel really is, their print ad campaign shows people drinking it right off the pump to prove that it is “clean enough to drink.” The campaign, which was created by Acne Advertising agency, Stockholm, Sweden and photographed by Martin Runeborg, shows people quenching their thirst by galloping biofuel. I just hope they do not light up a cigarette after this fuel consumption…
Drinking Biofuel – Flygbussarna Airport Coaches (GALLERY)
Biodiesel and ethanol, the most common biofuels in use today, are produced mainly from agricultural crops: sugar cane, soybean rapeseed and corn. However, these crops are often water intensive and pose a number of environmental problems related to land use and soil degradation. This is why the Commission favours so-called ’second-generation’ biofuels which are more efficient and less problematic from an environmental viewpoint. These are typically made from agricultural residues and ‘woody’ sources such as straw, timber, woodchips and manure
EurActiv.com – Wood, food or biofuels? | EU – European Information on Sustainable Dev.
Could you believe that countries are raising taxes on imports of ethanol to ‘protect’ their farmers?
A key part of this approach to biofuels is agricultural protectionism. A number of countries, including Brazil, can produce ethanol much cheaper, with a greater saving of nonrenewable energy and lower emissions, for example, by using sugar. But this sugar-based ethanol is subject to a prohibitive tariff in the United States (and there are similar barriers in Europe)
Straight Talk – The (Food) Price of Success – Finance & Development, December 2007
Tags: biofuels, biodiesel, ethanol
Tags:biodiesel·ethanol
