Big Screen TVs Are The SUVs Of The Electricity World

from the electricity-guzzling dept

Our electricity bills are up these days — and while the blame can be pinned to our increasing reliance on various electronics from charging gadgets to computers to DVD players to video gaming consoles, one big culprit for many may be the big screen TVs we’re buying. Apparently, these suckers use electricity the same way SUVs guzzle gasoline — but, just like SUVs, don’t expect Americans to give up their big screen TVs. Instead, the industry is looking at coming up with some self-imposed standards to make these TVs a bit more energy efficient.


Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Big Screen TVs Are The SUVs Of The Electricity World”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
9 Comments
? says:

Re: No Subject Given

From somebody who measures power consumption very closely, a 650w PS very rarely ever climes to 650w actual power consumed. My computer is very high powered compared to the average desktop. Three CRT (19″ and 2 17″) monitors, with three video cards, four hard drives, DVD, 500w ps, 3Ghz p4, Axim, several USB powered devices. The most it consumes is 288 watts. Of course, that doesn’t count the ink jet printer.

Loraan says:

No Subject Given

This study is misleading. According to Engadget, the study grouped TVs into just four categories: Standard-def/Small Screen, Standard-def/Large screen, High-def/Small screen, High-def/Large screen. And, surprise, it turns out that bigger TVs use more power. It would be far more informative to measure power output of several different types of TVs with the same screen size. CRT televisions, for example, use much more power than their lamp-based counterparts (LCD rear projection, DLP rear projection), so a user with an SD CRT-RP television might be using more power than a user with an HD DLP-RP television.

jeremiah (user link) says:

i've tested this...

A friend recently upgraded from an old school Mitsubishi rear-proj bigscreen to a 61″ Samsung DLT. We used a power monitor to check the voltage and amps being drawn by the tv.

The Samsung DLT (the largest screen TV he’s ever owned) uses *slighty* more power than a table lamp.

Typically, the boxes with the biggest power draw will be those with large capacitors: large tube televisions or power amps.

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...