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What should you look for when shopping for a new plasma or LCD screen? In the next year to two, it could be a big yellow sticker. Such stickers would detail the estimated energy consumption of TVs and a number of consumer electronics products—much like those big yellow EnergyGuide labels that grace most appliances.
The disclosure of energy use by TVs, personal computers, cable and satellite set-top boxes, stand-alone digital video recorders (DVRs), and personal computer monitors is mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act that was passed by the U.S. Congress signed into law last week by President George W. Bush. For more on the effects of this bill, see “New Energy Laws for Electronics.”
Under the new law, the Federal Trade Commission has 18 months to require power consumption labels for those electronics, according to Douglas Johnson, senior director of technology policy for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), an electronics manufacturers’ organization. And the power disclosures could take many forms.
“I expect industry to offer up a solution early next year, certainly well before the timeline specified,” says Johnson. He adds that the power disclosure is likely to be a raw number or a range, such as kilowatt hours used per year, how much that will cost and whether it meets Energy Star requirements. Energy Star is the government-backed labeling system for energy-efficient products.
“The FTC will decide [on the form the labeling takes], but only after careful dialogue with industries,” Johnson says. “We want to make sure the FTC comes up with something that’s complementary to the Energy Star system,” meaning that if a product meets Energy Star requirements, that is also disclosed.
Reliable testing procedures for all the electronics to be labeled also need to be in place. Johnson says the industry has been focused on finalizing test procedures for measuring the power consumption of digital TVs. “With that project nearly complete, we will be making sure there are other ways of measuring power consumption for all consumer electronics.”
The lack of digital TV testing procedures meant that DTV power consumption was excluded from the CEA’s report on http://www.ce.org/pdf/Energy%20Consumption%20by%20CE%20in%20U.S.%20Residences%20(January%202007).pdf”>Energy Consumption by Consumer Electronics in U.S. Residences, released in early 2007. The report will be updated with data from the new testing procedures, according to the CEA.
If you can’t wait for energy labels to grace your next electronics purchase, you can find energy-efficient electronics at the Energy Star site and through the CEA’s myGreenElectronics.
I think that plasma can improve, just like everything else in terms of power consumption. Doing a little checking, I found that 50 inch plasma’s draw very different power depending on brand/model. For example the Samsung 50inch I looked up draws 520w, the Panasonic 50 was 695w, and the pioneer 50 ‘only’ 371w. I think also a big factor was these unit’s standby power modes, which had: under 1w, 1w, and 23w respectively. For comparison, a sony 52inch LCD was 295 w on, with 0.4w on standby. A vizio 52 inch was 420w on, with 1w on standby. Also interesting was that samsung and LG did not list power consumption for their LCD televisions.
While my research was far from exaustive, it’s clear you can’t make the blanket statement that ALL LCD’s draw less power than the same sized plasma.
Mike lets use a bit of logic here, first off PLASMA gives
a very nice picture, but due to brightness problems
the image lacks punch compared to LCD, both being
adjusted correctly, I know this to be true as I have
researched friends who have both types, the big killer
for plasma is not only the higher power usage, but the
HEAT radiation into the room, which means together
with other appliances and also the body heat of people,
results in the airconditioner working harder, and that means it uses more power over a longer period of time, see where I am coming from Mike! with new government regulations coming in and power companies charging more, PLASMA in the near future 5/6 years timeframe has no where to go but out of the picture, thats not
wishfull thinking, thats a coming FACT, if you read
the right articles Mike, you should know that all PLASMA
manufactures from Panasonic, pioneer,ect, are about to increase their LCD range, so my advice to anyone
thinking of investing in PLASMA is think carefully,
First plasmas because of their energy consumption.
Governments are looking hard at giving those products an energy efficient ratings labels due to greenhouse gase emissions becoming a pressing political issue.
Then LCD’s further down the track as OLED’s are being fine tuned for better quality/price and energy consumption and Portability !! http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=c6cdb487e9d7d05ebd8b209f85cfb494&t=960314
Cheers
How do you know about plasma being phased out?? I’d like to know where you read that before buying an HDTV. Thanks!!
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What paul states is true re standby power, but when the
unit is fully on, thats where plasma’s problems begin,
if there was no real difference, then why would plasma
manufacturers be striving to reduce the power consumption
also paul conviently omitted the heat problem, read my previous email,