TV wattage surprise

[jack-rp9/bkPP+cDYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org (Jack Coats)]

You are right, and you are wrong.

I have borrowed a Kill-A-Watt device, and am tempted to purchase one.

On the TV's, and other devices, placarded ratings are not indicative
of actual use.
Many hare 'high end' ratings.  For things with motors, they are
'starting current'.
For our new 'big' LCD TV, I found that there are the 'brightness
settings'.  The
super bright, very crisp settings you see in the TV displays, are all
'tuned' for
the settings you tend to see in the 'display isle' in a Best Buy or similar.

There are several, lower intensity, slightly color varied settings available in
our low $$ LCD TV that actually make it more pleasant to view in a home
environment, and use less power.

If I remember the EnergyStar ratings, they basically set standards for
'stand by'
current to 3W or so per device.  At roughly 8000 hours per year, your TV on
'stand by' can consume 24,000 watts or 24KW.

On our TV, I found there was a 'standby' set of settings too, that can
reduce the
standby current by turning off the 'instant on' feature.  It adds
about 5 to 10 seconds
for 'warm up' when I turn on the TV.

Turning it off when not watching (I am bad about using one a background sound
like a 'radio' and not watching) helps too.

A friend, Bob, has put a power strip on his TV and associated
equipment and turn it
really off when not watching.  He made the mistake of connecting his TIVO
and wondered why it didn't work ;) ... after reconnecting the TIVO to
a continuous
on circuit all is well.  Also don't hook your cable box or satellite
equipment to
the power strip.  They don't power back quickly.  He solved the power thing by
getting rid of his TIVO and satellite (where the TIVO was from), and saves more
$$.

Bob and his family, and a couple of others in our church, have really gotten
onto the 'green' kick.  They started recycling and composting, and got the trash
down low enough that they canceled their trash service.  Electricity
and gas were
running over $250/mo, and through conservation, changing light bulbs, reducing
the temp in the house, etc, their utilities are now $90 or so a month.
(Ok, this is
the best percentage-wise of the folks trying this I know.)

This guy wasn't a 'greenine' before by any means.  He works as a sales person
for a concrete additive company, and his background is in concrete
technical work
(yes, there is such a thing).  We go to church together and are in the
same Sunday
School class.  We studied a book by Mathew Sleath, MD, called 'Serve
God, Save the Planet'.
It isn't bible thumping, but a short book on how while head of the ER
at Boston General
started seeing environmental issues causing illness in his patients.
He first started
by trying to do the 'right thing' with his family.  Yea, they thought
he was crazy at first,
then joined in. ... It is a light and interesting read even from a
secular standpoint.

Eventually Mathew wrote this book on his and his family's move toward a more
environmentally reasonable life style.

I have had the chance to meet and have coffee with Mathew and his
wife.  Neat folk.
Their life now is 'environmental education' with a spiritual twist.
He still doesn't
bible beat folks, but his real joy is in when people through understanding the
environment come to the Lord. ... Yes he still enjoys hearing about
how folks have reduced
their electric bill, saved water, etc, but it is secondary to his first passion.

In our Sunday School class we have a couple of other families that got
'convicted' go more
green.  Some have made it a burden in their lives by trying to do
'everything at once'.
When Dr Sleath came and talked at our little church, he was the first
to tell the to 'relax'.
Do what you can, when you can, and do what makes sense for you.  This
is not a race
but a trek we are all on.

Anyway, get the book, it is cheap even on Amazon. (It was Mathew's
first book, and he
doesn't get a penny if you buy the paperback version, and not much if
you buy the hardback.
Evidently a normal situation with rookie authors.  In any case he
still wants people to read it.)

Mathew and his wife now live near Lexington KY, and his two kids are in college.

I figure if Mathew's book could change the perspective of a died in
the wool republican
like Bob that just 'knows' global warming is bunk, there must be
something to this book.
I still don't think Bob is a convert over global warming, but 'doing
the right thing' for him is
both religiously, and economically based.

Give Mathew's book a read and let me know what you think after you read it.
I would like to hear some others perspectives on the environmental
things he says.

... Jack