I really do hate hippies very very much.
There's a story in the Observer today bemoaning the current crop of consumers who are running into shops to buy 'flat screen TVs.' These TVs are going to result in so much energy demand that we'll need two new nuclear power stations to cope with the demand.
The calculations are rubbish - and also stupidly flawed. They calculate the amount of energy needed to have all the TV sets on at the same time, not taking into consideration the fact that a large percentage of these TVs will be replacements. Each TV will not result in incremental demand, just the difference in power between the old tv and the new tv.
They also confuse Plasma screen and flat screen the whole way through the article. Plasma screens are about twice as power hungry as old CRT screens. However, LCD screens are about half as power hungry as old CRT screens. Guess which ones are cheaper?
The problem here is that Fujisu Siemens have done some PR with their 'Chief Technology Officer' telling the newspaper about the problems with Plasma screens (hoping that they will then talk up the power consumption of LCD screens). The stupid arts graduates at the Observer obviously then has no idea of the difference in technologies making up flat screens. The idiots
(names: David Smith and Juliette Jowit) then got up on their environmental high horses and bemoaned the new british consumer.
Then, to top it all off, they go on about the wasted energy in standby electronics. Yes, a small amount of energy is wasted in standby electronics. If you compare this waste with the amount of energy saved by getting 5% of the UK population to use energy saving bulbs, you'll see where the best use of time and effort is.
Lesson - don't trust journalists. They are stupid.
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