It is estimated by the Energy Saving Trust that UK households spend around £3.4 billion a year on the electricity bills to run consumer electronic products such as home entertainment systems [1]. By swapping your less energy efficient models for newer, Energy Saving Trust tested and recommended models there is the potential to start to reduce your carbon footprint and consequently your energy bills.
Televisions
Televisions have been considered to be a “low carbon activity” in comparison to other leisure pursuits such as travelling [2]. An hour in front of a 42-inch plasma screen will emit around 220g of carbon dioxide which is similar to driving around 1 mile in a very efficient car, however if you watch for many hours, the amount can add up rapidly. Therefore, there are a few things to look out for when choosing a new television model:
- Avoid Plasma Screens – Plasma screens use the most energy (nearly three times as much per square inch as rear-projection screens and around 20 percent more than LCDs).
- Avoid CRTs (Cathode-ray tube) – They use around the same amount of energy per square inch as plasma screens and are also much less efficient.
- Look for Integrated Digital Television (IDTVs) – These can receive digital signals without the need for a separate set top box, so they use one power source instead of two [3]. They can be switched off without losing their settings so don’t need to be left on standby which means they can save around 17kg of CO2 and £4 in energy bills a year compared to separate sets. As the digital switchover started in 2008 and will be completed by 2012, now is a good time to consider switching as £40 million in energy bills could be saved in the UK.
- Look for the Energy Saving Trust Recommended Logo – these products are guaranteed to be the most energy efficient in their category so will cost less to run and uses less energy.
Set-top Boxes
The digital switchover, between 2008 and 2012, is the perfect opportunity to upgrade your digital set top box or invest in a combined television that is more energy efficient. Set top boxes are inexpensive to buy, however in 2009 they cost UK households around £155 million in electricity in a year [4]. Therefore, consider these points before purchasing a new model in order to save energy and money:
- If you are planning to replace your TV set, you can buy an IDTV as the savings are explained above.
- If not, set top boxes are available readily and compatible with most television sets – even black and white. Look for the Energy Saving Trust Recommended set top box as these can use up to a third less energy while in on-mode than typical models so will therefore cost around 30 percent less to run. Energy Saving Trust Recommended set top boxes are measured on both their standby and on-mode power consumption. They all currently use 1W or 2W when on standby, depending on the display type and 4 W when switched on or 7W if it has high definition (HD) decoding ability.
Radio
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radios convert tradition analogue signals into a digital format prior to transmission and have been one of the biggest selling consumer electronic products over the last 5 years due to their superior sound quality, a wide range of extra channels and falling prices[5]. Considering this, they could make a significant difference to energy consumption if efficient models are purchased:
- Buy Energy Saving Trust Recommended models – These use around 76% less electricity annually than a standard radio, therefore if the next 9 million models bought were these, enough electricity would be saved to run the street lighting of the entire UK for nearly 2 months.
- Switch it off at the plug – digital radios consume more power than analogue models and can often switch into standby mode when switched “off”, thereby consuming more energy. Digital models have a standby consumption of around 5 watts, which is five times higher than analogue models, therefore if all users switched their radios off at the socket they’d save enough CO2 to fill the RMS Titanic 90 times.
Regardless of what you model you buy, it’s always important to switch your appliances off rather than leaving it on standby. Approximately £1 billion is wasted every year in the UK by not switching products off standby.
