Green Screens

SUSTAINABLE LIVING | by CELESTE TELL

SHOCKING BUT TRUE: I still don’t own a flat-screen TV. Not because I don’t want one. It’s just that every time I walk into my local Costco there are newer, better and cheaper models. So I wait. But I confess, I never really thought about the energy efficiency of my televisions. Until now.

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I don’t live in California, but if it’s true that as goes California, so goes the nation, then energy efficiency of our big screens is something I am going to be paying more attention to. Large flat-screen TVs — combined with their associated DVRs, DVD players, cable or satellite boxes, gaming consoles and other various and sundry peripherals — now consume 10 percent of all household electricity in the Golden State. Although California has the lowest state-wide per-capita energy consumption levels in the country, that’s still a hefty chunk.

The California Energy Commission is proposing mandated energy efficiency standards for flat-screen televisions up to 58 inches, increasing energy efficiency up to 33 percent beginning in 2011, and increasing to 50-percent reduction in energy consumption beginning in 2013. These new standards will simply be mandating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy’s Energy Star ratings, which are currently voluntary across the country.

The California Energy Commission has an FAQ on their website explaining the basics of the program, including a downloadable list of TVs on the market as of September 2009 that meet their proposed 2011 standards.

Now I’m glad I haven’t yet bought one of these babies. I’ll be taking that list on my next trip to Costco, and may finally bite the bullet, secure in the knowledge that it’s as green as it can be, at least for now.