The Green Side of LCD TVs

We're slowly getting better at it. Every other Tuesday increasing numbers of black boxes line the roads, filled with paper, bottles and cans. More of us use energy saving light bulbs. And, at least no one laughs these days at the idea of recycled toilet paper.

It's a start I guess. Is it enough? Probably not, it's hard to ignore the newspaper headlines – climate change is happening, and, trying to reduce the amount we throw away and consume is ever more important. The real culprits work at national and international level, but, without meaning to sound righteous, that's no reason not to try and play our part. Although recycling in the UK has quadrupled in the past 10 years, and there are higher targets to reduce the amount of waste placed in landfill sites, it still sometimes feels like a drop in the (rising) ocean.

Looking around the house, I know that despite all my best efforts to recycle, reuse, and not driving a car, I'm probably not making the carbon tiptoe that I'd like to. This period of introspection has been prompted largely because my TV broke down. Kaput. Gone.

Perhaps, I thought, I could look for an energy efficient way of replacing it? Buying second hand was the most obvious option, the ultimate in recycling. However, my contribution to landfill as a result of only ever having bought old TVs is pretty alarming, as they're already on their way out when I get hold of them.

So, I started looking into energy efficient options for new TVs. Given that TVs are pretty much prerequisite in every home in the Western world, the statistics for energy use are scary; in the UK we waste over one billion pounds keeping appliances on standby alone. My research was interesting though, because it seems that if I buy an LCD TV, it will use 50% less power than other types.

I'd discounted them as an option, thinking that they were too modern and hi-tech to be anything but power guzzlers. Apparently not though. It seems that they use less energy, emit less radiation and I get a slinky, bigger picture. This all seemed to be too good to be true – probably way beyond my budget. Wrong again, now the initial novelty is over, it seems that buying an LCD TV isn't going to cost much more. I found the best deals online and it seems that unless, of course, I go for a super size one, it's a viable option.

So, now I've done the research, placed an order and am just waiting for delivery. My TV free evenings left me wondering if there was anything more creative and eco-friendly to do with the old broken set.

Turning it into a fish tank appealed, but I don't really like fish.

I've gone, instead, for the ultimate green option. Filled it with earth and planted flowers in it. I have to say that it has brought a whole new meaning to the idea of watching TV!




About the Author
Sarah Maple uses Shopping.com to find LCD TV stands at the best prices!

Buying a Flat LCD TV Will Cut Down on Your Electricity Bill

A flat lcd tv is a great purchase because of the low profile and spacial efficiency, but not that alone. A flat lcd tv is also great because it offers the highest resolution of any tvs, and also because it has low glare, almost no glare at all. This is because the flat profile of a flat lcd tv means that, unlike a normal curved tv screen, which catches light from any direction and sends it to you in the form of glare, a flat lcd tv is only vulnerable to light ddisturbances from a particular direction, kind of like a mirror, and unless there is a powerful light source there right in that specific spot, the flat lcd tv will not reflect it back at you.




The reason it can have a flat screen is because a flat lcd tv does not have a cathode ray tube like a normal tv. A cathode ray tube, or crt, is basically a gun that shoots out electrons at high speed at the surface of a normal tv. These electrons strike a surface that flouresces, or glows, giving you a pixel on the screen. This means that a crt tv has to have a curved screen and enough depth to position an electron gun behind it to shoot the image out of the tv. A flat lcd tv, however, because it doesn't have a crt tube, but instead a light source with polarizing filters and a thin layer of liquid crystals between, it can be very thin and efficient.




It also uses up less power by far than a normal tv so, although initially, a flat lcd tv will cost more than a normal tv, eventually, that flat lcd tv will actually save you money by cutting down on your electricity bill. But the best thing about a flat lcd tv is the clarity of the image. Because there is no distortion from the curved screen that normal tvs have, you will simply never see a clearer image than on a flat lcd tv. Additionally, flat lcd tvs have better resolution than most normal tvs and clearer defined boundaries. This will make some difference in watching normal tv programs, but is most noticeable when you look at dvd movies, which are at a higher resolution than normal tv programs. If you are a movie fan like I am, flat lcd televison is the way to go without a doubt!






Muna wa Wanjiru has been researching and reporting on Internet Marketing for years. For more information on Flat LCD TV, visit his site at Flat LCD TV