We worked out that if everyone “TV-pooled” during the AFL Grand Final, the amount of electricity saved would be equal to around 245 megawatts of electricity. That’s equal to around 270 tonnes of carbon, 1067 native trees, or 65 cars off the road for a year.
For the 2009 Grand Final there were 2,878,000 viewers in Australia. Assuming 3 persons were watching each TV, and that 1/3 of viewers were watching on CRT TVs (consuming 100 watts), 1/3 were watching on Plasma TVs (consuming 301 watts), and 1/3 were watching on LCD TVs (consuming 111 watts), the estimated total electricity consumed over 3 hours of hard hitting footy would be equal to around 491 megawatts of electricity.
Assuming 1.1 tonnes of carbon is produced per megawatt of electricity, the amount of carbon produced by viewing the Grand Final is around 540 tonnes. To put that into perspective, 540 tonnes of carbon is equal to planting 2,135 native trees, or the equivalent of taking 124 cars average size cars off the road for a year. If we were to “TV-pool” – that is, gather round and watch the Grand Final in groups of 6, then we would halve the amount of carbon, halve the amount of trees, and halve the number of cars.
Food for thought when you're eating that pie at half time!
