[Wylug-discuss] CRT's

[Smylers]

david powell writes:

> well got to say this but theres a interesting calaculation that people
> should bear in mind 
> 
> a crt monitor  for free sounds a good offer  but using aprox 100 to
> 150W costs aprox  20p per day to run (given 8hrs use a day ) against
> 4p per day for a 19" lcd

But if you just want a monitor for an 'occasional use' computer (or for
when you happen to have your laptop at home, or for a server which
normally runs without anybody sat at it), then obviously the calculation
changes.

> so although it may seem a good offer it would over 3 years cost more
> than buying a brand new lcd monitor

How long is an LCD monitor expected to last?  If you used the CRT for,
say, 2 years and only then bought the LCD monitor, that presumably puts
off for 2 years the date of purchasing the monitor to replace the LCD
when it fails (or becomes obsolete, or there are shinier ones out).

And you're only looking at the financial cost, not the energy cost.  How
much energy is required to manufacture a new LCD monitor, and distribute
it from wherever to you?  Compare that with the transport cost of moving
a CRT a short distance within West Yorkshire.

> plus leaving the problem of desposing of the crt in the end to the
> persons getting them for free

Surely those people can dispose of them in whatever way you'd suggest
doing right now?  Disposing of them later doesn't make anything worse.

> better to send them for recycleing 

How recycled do CRT monitors get?  How much of them ends up in landfill
anyway, or gets put on ships to China in the hope that somebody over
there will recycle them in a way that nobody in the UK is bothered to
do?

Re-using an existing item (where the energy cost of manufacture and
tranport has already beens sunk) is often environmentally better than
disposing of it and buying a new replacement.  I'm not saying it
necessarily is in this case -- I don't know the answers to the questions
I pose above.

But I don't think the calculation, and therefore the conclusion, is as
clear-cut as you claim.

Smylers