I’ve had it with the obsession with Energy Saving, Green Tech. A couple of years ago I bought a new TV, that evening as I was watching a film to try it out I noticed the screen getting progressively darker until I could hardly see the picture – being a Sunday night I just googled the symptoms and found it was the TV’s default Energy Saving mode – as you watch your eyes are supposed to get used to the light of the picture and so it gradually turns the brightness down to save power.
I turned that off straight away, I squint at nobody, no TV.
Energy saving lightbulbs make things in my kitchen look strange colours – I know this because I put the adjacent non-flourescent bulbs in the living room and my decor is improved somewhat. I wouldn’t mind bu I haven’t seen much reduction in energy bills.
Finally now I have bought a CD micro system and connected a bluetooth receiver to the Aux input, the first time I tried it it shut itself off. Odd, I thought but switched it back on, same again, and again with some regularity. I looked in the manual and sure enough it is designed to switch to standby mode after ten minutes of inactivity. Now it apparently defines inactivity as not playing a CD – the radio switches off after ten minutes too. I have one hope left that I haven’t tried and that is a bluetooth adaptor that connects to the iPod dock on the top.
I have wondered if it’s faulty but it does say that this is normal behaviour in the manual, even in the troubleshooting section at the back so I doubt I’ll be sending it back to the seller on Ebay I got it from. Chalk another lost £30 up to experience.
It may be saving energy to save the planet but if I have to get up and press some buttons every ten minutes – maybe the designers were inspired by the “Lost” island’s countdown clock – then it’s not saving my energy is it.
Longfellow's 21st Century Lunch 