It's March 1 and by now we all slowly start to forget those pesky resolutions we made at the start of the year. I can't force you to put the crisps down and hit the gym, but I can remind you to continually make efforts to stay green. It's one of those things that's increasingly getting easier and with the right knowledge and choice in appliances, we can all have a positive impact on the Earth we share.
The best type of TV for being energy efficient is an OLED TV. They use tons of individual LEDs to illuminate the screen as opposed to a large fluorescent backlight that remains on constantly with a Plasma. Keep this in mind when you make your next big TV purchase. Most other major home appliances are rated with energy efficient standards and depending on what you can afford initially, think green because it will usually save you more in the long run anyway.
Most people think about the actual appliances they are purchasing, but don't even think about how they will charge those items. Think for a minute about solar powered laptop bags. Instead of carrying a bulky power cord, you can slide your laptop into a solar power bag and use the sun to charge it instead. This energy efficient way also works for other gadgets including your mobile phone and MP3 players. Since the UK doesn't get all that much sun, it's a good thing these work with artificial light as well. Powermonkey has the Solar Gorilla and the Powermonkey eXplorer, which both use the suns energy to power devices like laptops and mobile phones.
If you're serious this year about saving energy, invest in a monitor like The Wattson or the Owl Wireless Electricity Monitor. They give you up-to-the-second information on exactly how much energy your household is using and what it's costing you. From there you will be able to measure just what your doing right to save energy and money and where you can still afford to improve.
