I’ve always read eBooks on my PDA or Cellphone from early Palm devices,  Microsoft PDAs to the iPhone.  It doesn’t make sense to spend $300-400 to casually read eBooks on a device that can only do one thing. I’ve read dozens of eBooks on my PDA’s for years. There’s a iPhone app that makes thousands of books available to you FREE.

Stanza allows you to download free ebooks online and enjoy them wherever you are:

http://www.lexcycle.com/

I understand that if you read everyday, or if you want a device that can be used for school you would enjoy a big screen like the Kindles or other eBook readers . But for 95% of people their current PDA would be a better solution and wouldn’t create the waste and recycling headache of a separate device.

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Here are some photos of the Metal Halide to LED conversion:
I used a pre-made panel that uses 40W of energy. My old light used 150W and made the chiller work overtime!
You can buy the panel on eBay

 

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So I’ve been trying to cut down my electricity bill from ~$180 to something closer to $100.
This is what I’ve done so far:

• I replaced all the light bulbs with energy effiicient CFL lights.
• I replaced my dual processor, multiple drive, Server with a capable NAS drive
• I replaced my 170Watt aquarium lights with 40Watt LEDs

Finally I replaced my 4yo, second generation Plasmawith an energy efficient LCD. Here my Plasma energy tag:

Plasma energy HOG

This thing ran so hot that the AC had to be on all the time, it would raise the room temperature by 4-7 degrees!!.  It was so hot you could not keep your hand confortably touching the back. I researched energy efficient solutions and found: “Vizio 42″ Class Eco 1080p LCD HDTV, VO420E” it uses less than half the power of the old system:

Voltage Range: 110~240Vac at 50/60 Hz
Power Consumption: 150W average, <0.34W standby

Vizio 42" Class Eco 1080p LCD HDTV, VO420E

So the old Plasma used ~370Watt while on, this new LCD around ~150Watt and it doesnt heat my room so the AC doesnt kick-in due to it.

The best part is that you can get this LCD on Walmart for $599, I sold my old Plasma for $325.

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