My first reaction to the headline was excitement. I just like it when I see signs of things like energy efficiency gaining momentum. Then as I read along I started to think about my company before I had any eco minded thoughts.
Back then I was focused on offering the biggest and baddest in home video, audio and control solutions. I had not a care in the world about how much energy our systems were consuming. I had not yet been introduced to a life of eco-friendliness. I was, and still am however a young owner of a young business. I know consumer electronics and do my job well. I came from NOT a lot and started this company with my sister and 3 thousand dollars; the classic American dream.
It wasn’t until my business partner and I met with a prominent builder of highly rated LEED projects about installing a system that I was even exposed to green living. Our company was the only trade that had nothing eco-friendly to contribute and that kinda bugged me. That moment led us consider how we could use the technology we normally sold as a luxury, and really use it to add ecological benefit, which we did.
I wonder though, how receptive would I have been to going green if it was mandated by the government. Especially if those mandates would potentially hurt my immediate business. Have any of you come to your beliefs by force? If so I’d love to hear from ya! Joking. Anyway, that’s just my personal icky factor. Logic for me doesn’t ad up either.
The L.A. Times sites that “televisions account for about 10% of the average Californian’s monthly household electricity bill”. Duane Larson of PG&E states, “We project that by 2010, one-quarter of the energy in a house will be used by consumer electronics.” Well, what about the other 15%; computers, audio systems etc. There are also many other areas like lighting and HVAC and resource monitoring that CE company’s (like mine) are uniquely positioned to contribute.
The Home Lighting Control Alliance explains a benefit of lighting control; According to the Energy Conservation Enhancement Project at Louisiana State University, “20% of all electricity produced in the U.S. is used for lighting, but 50% of that is wasted by inefficient lighting sources or careless consumers.” That's waste CE Pro's can easily help to dramaticly decrease with exsisting technology.
The Times article also states “The California Energy Commission is looking for ways to relieve the strain on the power grid.” To my knowledge, there are no incentives for CE retailers to sell any of the energy efficient products that already exist. There seems to be no high profile, creative dialogue between legislators, government organizations like the CEC and the entire CE industry. System integrators are a much different service than appliance retail and with all due respect offer much more to achieving maximum environmental benefit.
I guess what’s bugging me is that the technology of flat panel displays is naturally progressing towards better efficiency. OLED, LED backlight etc., why force it? This proposal definitely starts with a failure in creating opponents to where there should be close allies. I will also add that there is no doubt in my mind that a combined effort between the proponents of this proposal and the CE industry at all levels would produce a much more fruitful, entirely voluntary result.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-tv3-2009jan03,0,4076833.story?tr...
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