SEP 10

The Energy Star for TVs standards were released on September 3 and manufacturers will need to up efficiency and keep sizes in check if they want the coveted label.

The Version 4 sticker, coming May 1, 2010, will require a 40 percent increase in efficiency over TVs sold today and the Version 5 sticker, coming May 2012, will require a 65 percent increase.  The new ratings will reflect the energy consumed when the TV is in "On Mode" as well as when it's off but downloading programming information.

The new versions pretty much take large TVs out of the running by requiring that any TVs over 50 inches meet the same "On Mode" requirements as a 50-inch one - 108 kW.  The cover letter to the technical specifications for the new standards made it clear that large TVs just aren't environmentally friendly.

"The issue in this case is what TV sizes can the federal government credibly designate as preferable from an energy and environmental perspective. This has become an important issue as the sizes of TVs and energy use continue to grow."

Making it harder to qualifty for the Energy Star label will hopefully drive up efficiency on all TV models.  TVs account for four percent of all households' electricity use in the U.S.  According to the EPA, there are 275 million TVs in use in the country, consuming 50 billion kWh per year - enough to power all the homes in the state of New York for a year.

via CNET

Comments (8)

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watts
written by James, September 10, 2009

I presume that is 108 watts? 108kW is enough to heat a house to sauna type levels in a few minutes.

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And?
written by Carl, September 11, 2009

It's great that Energy Star is trying to push for more and more efficient TVs, but what's the point of basically making it to where big TVs won't be Energy Star certified? No one's going to buy a smaller TV just because it doesn't have the sticker on it. All this does is make it to where none of the bigger TVs are certified, which means people won't know which are more efficient and which aren't. It's counterproductive.

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What about Nitrogen trifluoride in the production process?
written by Wouter, September 11, 2009

During the production of a LCD pennal there is emmision of Nitrogen trifluoride:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_trifluoride
This is a greenhouse gas with a very high GWP.

Does anyone know how this is handled during the production of this (and other) TV (/Monitor)?

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108w Max?
written by EV, September 12, 2009

Another idiotic scheme for defining what is 'best'. The numbers should be based around screen area and not give a max power consumption.

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There needs to be a limit
written by Mark, September 13, 2009

I agree it's a problem to not have *some* certification for larger TVs - but the fact is you can't just base it on Watts/screen area because it ends up just being green washing. Yes a 200 inch screen that uses 110 Watts is efficient - but it's still potentially a pretty big energy user. Part of the problem needs to be solved by more efficient technology, and some of it needs to be solved by behaviour changes.

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...
written by Charlie K, September 16, 2009

Sounds like too much misdirected government intrusion. Govt decides big TV's are inefficient and pretty soon they will go the way of the incadescent lightbulb.

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hmmmm...
written by ecogreen, September 16, 2009

First of all, a lot of people don't care about energy consumption. I do, but most people could care less. Second of all it wont matter if tv's are certified or not, in the end all of it will be powered with solar and wind. So it won't matter. Solar and wind power are way of the future. Energy stickers will mean nothing in the future because There will be no energy consumption. Sun and wind is FREE!

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LED dudes... carbon nano tubes will be in future too
written by kifar, January 03, 2011

Does NOT have to be smaller size, lesser quality. I just got a LG full LED TV... 47 inch. My old CRT TV had listed as 100 watts... and 19 inch. This one is listed by CHET as 71 watts. 240 Hz with a responce of 2ms, So I get 29% better efficiency, considerably larger TV with the quality plamsas are jealous of. Of course, I can not heat my man cave with it....

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