Energy Efficient Televisions

There’s been a lot of discussion about energy efficiency in the world of televisions, but is it really worth the discussion, or is it just a bunch of corporate hype.  The answer?  Well, it’s a bit of both.  Let’s dig a little deeper.

Firstly, are you eligible for appliance rebates or other energy efficient tax incentives for TVs?  No.  Why?  Because the regulation on identifying what makes a TV energy efficient or not is poorly developed and secondly, TVs are not core, essential appliances or electronics in a household.  Whether we like it or not, your TV is not in the same book as a home refrigerator or water heater.  Today we have so many options with all of our electronics, it is hard to even decide what you want in the first place.  Even after you have narrowed things down, there are some of us who would like to explore what our final television choices consume in energy.  There are typically 4-5 different types of televisions to look at and a few basic rules to follow that will essentially cover and answer these burning questions for you once and for all.

Types of televisions or TVs (as of 2010):

-Tube Television (your classic glass front big and bulky tube television)

-Plasma Television

-LCD Television

-Rear Projection Television

-LED Television

This chart from the California Energy Commission shows some of the core differences between these types of TVs.  Here’s our guidelines to help iron out the rest of the bumps and questions:

1)  Bigger means more.  The larger your screen, regardless of the type of the TV, you will be drawing on more power.  Remember that the inches on TVs are measured diagonally so the difference in size of a 46inch and a 32inch is, well, significant.  We won’t bore you with the calculations but check out www.wolframalpha.com for neat ways to calculate things in the world around you.  So the moral of this story is that, yes your 52 inch TV will indeed be a bigger power draw than your 46 inch TV DESPITE the fact that they are only 6 inches diagonal difference.

2) We’re going to go ahead and debunk the misinformation that is floating around out there about phantom power being SIGNIFICANT in TVs.  Yes, it is present and it will be nice and necessary to see more TVs in the future that draw less power on standby mode, but this is a ridiculous selling point the manufacturers are putting out there when the real factor is what your TV uses when its ON.

3) Here’s the breakdown of technology efficiency.  Assuming that you had all 5 different types of TVs next to each other and each one was 32inches, the average power consumption would be close to this:

(from BEST to WORST)

Rear Projection TVs –> LED TVs –> LCD TVs –> Tube TVs –> Plasma TVs

So basically the Rear Projection TVs are really good performers in the energy department while the Plasma technology is a major power hog.

4) Finally, the other factor you should consider is that while your TV has it’s pros and cons and really, you should be considering a whole bunch of different factors in performance while keeping in mind that the final power draw differences are not really major in the big picture, the biggest point is all the other gadgets that come along with the package.  Figuring out how to minimize the number of electronics you have all connected to the TV entertainment system will be your most significant determinant of your power savings.  Have an Xbox360, Wii, or PS3?  Try keeping them unplugged completely while you are not using them; that goes for whatever else sits there unused for sometimes days at a time.

There are some really great detailed resources out there on specific Televisions/TVs:

http://reviews.cnet.com/green-tech/tv-power-efficiency/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=choosing-an-energy-efficicient-tv

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=TV