The implications of these two News.com stories are pretty frightening: “Tech firms focus on TV” and “Energy hogs in your living room.” As the latter story explains, “TVs are the biggest energy beasts of the high-tech gadget world.” According to the National Resources Defense Council, “Alone, they [TVs] account for 4 percent of the nation’s annual residential electricity consumption.” 

The statistics might raise an eyebrow or two, but do you think it will prevent or at least limit TV viewing across the United States? It’s not likely. In fact, according to the first News.com story mentioned above, the high-tech industry is spending considerable time and money focusing on how to connect the PC and TV so that people can conveniently consume EVEN MORE electricity.

“Focusing on the TV as the cornerstone to a home entertainment strategy seems like a no-brainer for technology companies, considering nearly 99 percent of all households in America have a TV set, and most often more than one. On average, American households spend between three and seven hours per day watching television.”

Does your family gather around the PC to watch your favorite TV program? Or perhaps you stream video from your computer onto the TV? If so, please keep this little factoid in mind: “…reducing active-mode energy consumption in TVs by 25 percent could save the U.S. more than 10 billion kilowatt hours a year, enough energy to power the state of Delaware for a year.” I don’t know about you, but I have a sudden urge to read a book!!