Dave's Amazing Ability to Read Minds!

As Mrs THIT and I are preparing for our big move into El casa Del Treehugger, we also are exploring the opportunity to upgrade on appliances and techie stuff. Or at least bring them up to date. The Canuckoscope was, in truth, the least of our priorities but we've been exploring options for the one that's obviously most important.

That's right. The television.

I don't personally watch that much TV. My viewing is pretty well restricted to watching the Redskins lose and...uhm...pro wrestling. Still, both are pretty spectacular on a 40+ inch TV, no doubt. Christine watches many dramas like the 4,912 versions of Law & Order and CSI, but also digs her Nascar. Again, a large TV is pretty Nascar-friendly.

I hate Nascar.

Now Christine having scuttled my idea of having an Imax screen installed, we began to explore more reasonable options. And who would pipe in but my main man, David Suzuki, in his most recent newsletter:

...But one of the biggest ticket holiday sellers this year will likely be one of the biggest energy hogs too. Giant flat-screen TVs are all the rage and with that increase in size comes an increase in power consumption. LCD displays, while generally more efficient than old CRT displays, are getting much, much larger, often negating any energy savings. And plasma televisions, which use a different technology, are generally far less efficient. In fact, some plasma TVs can use hundreds of watts of power, effectively becoming one of the biggest energy consumers in your home.

So choose carefully this Christmas and look for the Energy Star label. Technology can help reduce your environmental footprint, but it can also make you a Bigfoot. If you aren’t careful, you may end up with the television equivalent of an SUV in your living room. And that isn’t good for anyone.

We already were looking for something Energy Star labelled, but had been looking at plasma televisions specifically. We were told that plasma is better suited for sports viewing but that on the other hand they may have a shorter life. That's a 1-1 tie, but perhaps the comment above will win the battle for LCD.