19.11.07

Plasma, LCD TV Electricity Usage

In a former post you can read HERE, I wrote about how plasma TV's burn through more electricity then traditional tube televisions. This was pretty alarming to myself and many readers, mostly because the world is moving away from tube TV's and toward these flat panel displays.


If you are thinking about buying yourself or somebody else a new TV this holiday season, CNET has gone through the process of documenting the energy usage of the major flat panel displays to help make you a more educated consumer. I'll post the information below. You can read more by going HERE.

Samsung HL-T5687S
56-inch rear-projection
0.12 (Watts/Square Inch)
154.78 (Total Watts)
$47.45 (Yearly Cost)
Most-efficient (plasma)

Vizio P42HDTV
42-inch plasma
0.25 (Watts/Square Inch)
188.26 (Total Watts)
$58.70 (Yearly Cost)
Most-efficient (LCD)

Sony KDL-46S3000
46-inch LCD
0.22 (Watts/Square Inch)
202.58 (Total Watts)
$61.83 (Yearly Cost)
Fewest watts consumed

Sharp LC-32D43U
32-inch LCD
0.33 (Watts/Square Inch)
144.11 (Total Watts)
$44.41 (Yearly Cost)
Most watts consumed

Panasonic TH-58PZ700U
58-inch plasma
0.42 (Watts/Square Inch)
609.53 (Total Watts)
$185.28 (Yearly Cost)

6 comments:

  1. On my Sony 46" LCD TV, the backlight on the maximum setting uses 100 watts more than the backlight on the mininimum setting (237 watts vs 137 watts). My Kill-a-Watt also says my Sharp 26" LCD TV showed a similar correlation between the backlight setting and energy usage. The Sony has a Power Saving setting which reduces energy usage to 87 watts (instead of 137 watts), though the picture is pretty dim in Power Saving mode. No other picture settings other than backlight had any effect on the power usage.

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  2. DUH, why would I want to watch a dim TV!?!

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  3. Plasma TVs should be avoided because there is a very powerful (thousands of times more than CO2) greenhouse gas used in their manufacture (NF3) that is very long-lived (~700 years). Most is captured but enough escapes that the contribution of this one chemical approximately equals that of Austria. So stick to LCD!

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  4. Sorry, I made a mistake on that last post. NF3 is used in the manufacture of both types of TVs (LCD and plasma), as well as other many other electronics. It is used for plasma etching of silicon. About 2000 tons is produced per year, but only about 2% of this escapes to the atmosphere - but enough to make it a problem, especially since the demand for it is rising quickly.

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  5. i am very fascinated by the new backlight system, partial dimming

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