Looks like the next cool thing is going to be solar powered home theater. Richard Glikes, ultra tech guru and exec director at Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA) is all over the Internet with his favorite green living home technology. The state-of-the-tech system is powered with solar energy provided by roof-mounted panels that produce, in sunshine, 700 watts of power per hour.
Engadget says it should run things for nearly a full day without help from the traditional power grid.
Electronic House magazine online reports it a little differently, saying the panels will provide 19 hours of viewing pleasure per week. From my perspective, that's not exactly right - seems like the panels can keep the system going in a sunny location, given a sunny week, pretty consistently. But I do home tech, not energy science. At this point, the solar powered home theater is a prototype - though given enough budget, you or I could probably duplicate it.
Glikes used a 100-inch screen, mega speakers and all the best, of course. The idea could be scaled down to suit the average home theater fab. But then, there are questions to ask. Where is all that equipment manufactured? How much impact does the production of the equipment have on the environment? And the solar panels - likely made in the Orient somewhere and then transported here on ships, trucks and trains. How long would you have to use solar power to scale down the carbon foot print of the entire process of getting this home theater?
We'll see more on this solar home technology, no doubt, or even wind powered home electronics -- maybe. But the latest green thinking says we should look at the whole picture of so-called "green" alternatives before we jump on board. But it's a cool idea, isn't it?
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Print | posted @ Tuesday, August 04, 2009 3:10 AM