STAYING IN CAN COST ENERGY, TOO

Lucy Siegle, Guardian - Hard times mean communal socializing has been jettisoned in favor of home comforts . . . You might think that from an eco point of view this could be a big win, but confining ourselves to our own four walls spells trouble.

This is because, with the exception of the hospitality industry's fondness for patio heaters - one commercial patio heater can emit more CO2 than a 4x4 car - heading out means sharing resources, especially energy. Leaving the homestead also means that you are not plugged into those energy guzzling, 'luxury' appliances.

While gas consumption has reputedly fallen recently by 12 per cent, courtesy of heart-stopping energy bills, electricity usage is still spiraling out of control. When it comes to 'luxury electronics', the normal rules that anybody sane would use to purchase functional white goods, such as a reasonably sized fridge - which include reliability and efficiency - go out of the window. As TV-watching hours increase, so too do screen sizes. It is almost impossible to purchase a good old cathode-ray television now, even though they consumed as little as one-third the energy of their flat-screen replacements. Meanwhile a 42in plasma television switched on for five hours a day will consume 766kWh of electricity over a year, compared to just 222kWh for a 28in standard TV.

To add insult to injury, nitrogen trifluoride, a chemical used in the manufacture of a liquid-crystal flat screen emits a gas 17,000 times more potent than CO2.

But challenging TVs for the crown of biggest wastrel appliance are game consoles. According to a recent US report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, if left on constantly, consume more than 1,000kWh of electricity each year, equal to the annual energy use of two new refrigerators. A Nintendo Wii is relatively efficient, using seven times less power.

Around eight per cent of your energy bill goes on nothing, courtesy of the standby function. The 42in plasma TV eats 125kWh of electricity in standby. And standby power for games consoles is predicted to grow from the 43 watts average in 2005 to 105 watts in 2020.