James Delahunty
18 Apr 2009 20:07
According to research, about 10% of all electric power used within the average home is used by televisions and their accessories. California is looking at this as a possible target for efforts to reduce energy usage in the state, and is proposing stricter efficiency standards for television sets. Ideally, the standards would aim to cut the average power consumption of a television by 50 percent.
The target date for the plan to kick in is 2013, but if the standards could be drawn up as early as this summer, then it could apply to televisions produced in 2011. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is resisting such restrictions, and points out that energy can already be saved without making new rules. It points out that simple acts such as lowering the brightness and contrast levels can cut energy usage by up to 25% alone.
Of course, there is a long way to go before something like this plan could be drawn up. It would have to take into account the differences in technology used in the televisions of today; there is a large difference in energy consumption of Plasma and LCD, for example.