Black Friday Strikes Again!
By Karina | November 26, 2008
We’ve rolled around to another Thanksgiving - which means it’s another Black Friday! Which means the traditional combination of binge eating and binge shopping. Last year we talked about celebrating Buy Nothing Day - which is going on again this year! This year, after speaking to a couple of loved ones and dear friends, I realized that you know? with these economic straights, people will probably be monitoring the black friday sales just as hard (if not harder) than before. And then I remembered a story I heard on NPR about the new Energy Star ratings for TELEVISIONS. that’s right - televisions.
Let’s just start by saying that televisions - especially the big bright plasma TV’s - use a huge amount of energy. You can unplug your TV when you’re not watching it as much as you want, but when it’s on, your TV can pull as much electricity as your refrigerator! Cnet did some research, you can see a list of annual costs of using a television here - some TVs cost over $200 a year to run! The Daily Green has a great summary of the costs over here.
So before you hit the shops looking for a great deal on a new TV, take a gander at the sales fliers and compare the energy use at the Energy Star website. The standards have been upgraded from their old 1998 values, and just in time! If you remember - in 2009 they’re changing the standard for broadcast over from analog television to HDTV, and there will be a lot of people out there looking for a bran’ new television box the Friday after Thanksgiving. You might want to gently share this information with fellow shoppers, if you’re not too fatigued.
And remember - please take care of your e-waste if you do buy a new TV this year!
(And of course, if you want to save money and hang out with loved ones, go ahead - feel TOTALLY FREE to skip black friday. Totally. )
Have you been considering a new TV this year?
[[Photo of TVs from flickr user Jerry W. Lewis via creative commons license.]
Topics: General |
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptLet’s just start by saying that televisions - especially the big bright plasma TV’s - use a huge amount of energy. You can unplug your TV when you’re not watching it as much as you want, but when it’s on, your TV can pull as much … […]
[…] Black Friday Strikes Again! […]
Thanks for this info, Kari. I’m totally going to be armed when my boyfriend goes TV shopping. :)