home theater, lcd hdtvI've been watching great movies on our home theater this summer. We treat our summers like others treat their winters: we hibernate indoors. Staying cool is our number one mantra, and by checking out lots of good DVDs and documentaries, the whole family avoids the summertime blues by staying amply entertained and challenged by the diversity we are watching on the home theater.

Last summer we were saving for our home theater so we kept ourselves cool by going to the library, movies, taking camping trips, and researching what kind of home theater we wanted. We had to decide on whether to get a projection TV or an LCD TV. We ultimately chose the widescreen LCD HDTV because we liked the simplicity of it. Next we had to decide about the speakers and whether or not to get a Blu Ray player or just stick to what we already had. We decided to skip the Blu Ray DVD player because what we had was working just fine and took the money and got really good surround sound speakers, instead. Having good sound makes the viewing experience almost real. The beauty of the work that we did last summer has paid off in energy savings. The new LCD HDTVs are much more energy efficient than the old TV set we were using. They throw off much less heat, which means lower air conditioning bills, too.