No Title 2150
Stop your TV from hogging energy
Stop your TV from hogging energy
California’s proposed rules for new TVs could save you money
Among home appliances, televisions rank third in power consumption, behind heating and cooling systems and refrigerators.
The California Energy Commission has proposed mandatory energy-consumption standards for new televisions. It says the new standards would save enough electricity to supply 864,000 homes.
California is turning to televisions because of the growing popularity of “flat screen” models, so called because their display panels are lighter and thinner than traditional cathode ray tubes (CRTs).
Despite their sleek dimensions, many flat-screen models are power gluttons. On average, flat-screen TVs consume 40 percent more power than CRT models.
They are also proliferating at what the California Energy Commission finds an alarming rate. Liquid crystal display (LCD) models account for about nine out of 10 new TVs sold in the state. Plasma televisions, which consume triple the electricity of CRT models, account for most of the rest.
Tips to save money while watching: TV Cnet.com suggests:
- Turn off the TV and all connected devices when they’re not in use.
- If your television has a “quick start” option, turn it off.
- If your set is an LCD with backlight control, turn the backlight down.
- If your set has a power saver setting, use it. Search your set’s picture controls for other ways to reduce light output.
- Limit the light in your home theater. This can both save power and enhance the “theater” experience.
- Buy a TV with a smaller screen and sit closer to it.
- Watch TV with family members or housemates.
- Watch less television.
Energy Star’s TV ratings
An Energy Star label means something, though not as much as one might hope.
The government-sponsored Energy Star program is intended to help consumers judge energy efficiency, but compliance is voluntary, and manufacturers test and rate their own products.
To earn an Energy Star, a TV when turned on must consume no more than a wattage determined by its screen size. If a television offers a choice between the power-intensive mode retailers use to catch the consumer’s eye and a power-saving “home” mode, testing occurs in the “home” mode.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has called Energy Star misleading. Still, the agency says that if Energy Star ratings were properly applied and all TVs sold in the U.S. earned them, the reduction in greenhouse emissions would match taking 1 million cars off the road.
If California adopts its proposed standards, consumers will have what amounts to a second set of energy ratings—the list of TV models that make the cut in the Golden State.
Find out more, and download a list of TVs that already meet the California standards, at www.energy.ca.gov/appliances/tv_faqs.html.
