Energy...

My friend Joe recently suffered a terrible tragedy: lightning struck near his house, and the resulting energy surge fried his coffee maker, alarm clock, old VCR and, worst of all, three TV sets.

And so Joe came to me, looking for advice on buying some energy-efficient TVs to replace the ones that he lost.

First of all, I told him to finally buy some surge protectors. Once he agreed to do that, I gave him the following advice:

1. Look for the ENERGY STAR logo. Qualified TVs use up to 30% less electricity than similar models, so make sure to use this as your starting point.

2. Skip the plasma. A recent study showed that plasma TVs use more electricity than large appliances like refrigerators. Ouch!

3. Skip the LCD. Liquid Crystal Display TVs use less electricity than plasmas, but one of the main chemicals in their manufacture, nitrogen trifluoride, was recently found to be 17,000 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide. Double ouch.

4. Stick with the good old cathode ray. It may be hip and technologically savvy to have a flat-screen TV, but when it comes to energy efficiency, your old tube TVs still win hands down. Tube TVs have gotten much better in recent years, so you can still get an excellent image on a screen made with flat glass.

Sure, you can't hang a tube TV on your wall, but it's better than paying a fortune to your electric company.

No matter what you buy, you can save big bucks every year by unplugging your TV when it's not in use. Most models still suck in a fair amount of juice when they're not in use -- what's known as "standby" power -- so unplugging them turns them off much better than the "off" switch.

Plus, as an added bonus, unplugged TVs can't be destroyed by lightning. (Right, Joe?)