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“Be an Outlet for Change” Sweepstakes Winners to Get HD TVs

ROSEMEAD, Calif., Nov. 23, 2010 — Southern California Edison (SCE) has a reminder for customers shopping for holiday gifts. Items that plug in have two costs: the cost to buy them, and the cost to run them. The more energy efficient an electronic device or appliance is, the less its owner will have to spend to use it.

To help navigate the dizzying choices of electronics and appliances, SCE created a downloadable gift guide, which can be found at www.sce.com/shopping.

In addition, SCE is holding a sweepstakes for two HD ENERGY STAR-labeled televisions. All eligible California residents who pledge to “Be an Outlet for Change” by unplugging electronics, using energy-saving surge protectors and choosing ENERGY STAR-qualified devices are able to win prizes. Each week through Dec. 31, 10 winners will receive either a solar powered cell phone charger or an energy-saving surge protector. Grand prize winners of the two HD TVs will be selected in early January 2011. To learn more or to enter the sweepstakes, visit www.sce.com/change.

“It’s our mission to help our customers make smart energy decisions – this season and beyond,” said Gene Rodrigues, SCE’s director of Customer Energy Efficiency and Solar. “The ENERGY STAR icon is an easy way to identify the most efficient products that help save money, energy and the environment.”

The SCE gift guide includes the following energy-saving tips:

  • ENERGY STAR-qualified TVs use about 40 percent less energy than standard units. The most energy efficient models are liquid crystal display TVs with light-emitting diode (LED) screens. The average cost to run a 50-inch ENERGY STAR-labeled TV is more than $46 per year; the same sized plasma TV without the ENERGY STAR costs about $92 per year, nearly twice as much.
  • DVD players and combination TV/DVD units account for the greatest portion of “standby” electricity consumed in homes – approximately 35 percent. (Standby power is the electricity used by a device when it is off or in sleep mode.) ENERGY STAR-rated players use as little as one-fourth of the standby energy of standard models.
  • Holiday light strings with LED bulbs cost a fraction of the price to operate as light strings with incandescent bulbs, and they’re safer because they emit almost no heat.
  • The average American household spends $100 a year to power electronic devices while they’re off or in standby mode. (That’s more than $10 billion annually in wasted energy costs.) Energy-saving surge protectors or “smart strips” can help by automatically turning off the power to electronics when not in use.
  • Ninety percent of the energy used in operating a washing machine goes toward heating the water that will wash and rinse the clothes. Water-saving models can cut water and energy use by more than 40 percent. The most energy-efficient washers are front-loading models, which use about a third of the water to wash the same amount of clothes.

About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.

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Southern California Edison Provides a Holiday Shopping Gift Guide of Energy Efficient Products