The California Energy Commission hopes to end the burden of energy-inefficient plasma and LCD TVs on the state’s power grid. The regulations are expected to pass mid-2009, and could be in full effect by 2013.
Officials claim that the standards, once fully in place, would be a power gain equivalent to that of 87,000 homes. On the flip side, if the regulations do pass, it will surely remove some TVs from store shelves and slightly boost sticker prices.
During peak viewing times, TVs use about 10-percent of the power needed to power all of Southern California!
These gray areas in the market could lead consumers to outside markets via Amazon.com, or just some old-fashioned pillaging.
I have to say, maybe this is a good thing. TV just makes kids fat and violent. Also, plasma TVs which hold very little market share use more than 3-times as much energy! And with sales of televisions growing by 4 million a year, that’s kinda scary.
The regulations would be spread out over a two year period, where the first phase would take place in 2011. The final phase would take place in 2013.
Needless to say, television manufacturers kinda thinks this sucks.
California has pioneered legislation like this before. In fact, the federal government has adopted California’s rules on everything from appliances to home insulation.
>>See Also: California Ups Renewable Energy Mandate to 33% by 2020
Source: Los Angeles Times | Photo: © Leezh | Dreamstime.com
About Jerry James Stone
I wonder if this will backfire and give green initiatives bad press with the TV-loving public!
I don’t know if California has got companies to switch off most of their stuff at night yet – (most Hollywood films show US streets by night with office lights ablaze.) Surely that would save a whole lot more?
The unexpected solution to reducing energy usage by TVs is already in the works. It is caused by crummy programming brought to us by the Networks and Hollywood. Prime time TV shows are now so bad that I hardly watch anything anymore. Thus my new 50" plasma gets used mostly for DVDs.
This type of intrusion into personal space by "big government" is getting out of hand. I say the CEC, CPUC, CARB, BAAQMD, SCAQMD, and the rest of the alphabet soup of regulators needs to be shut down. That will made a big contribution to meeting teh budget deficit.
Hail CRT !
The rapid introduction of Plasma and LCD Television has destroyed an industry. How many TV Repair shops are left these days?! Hardly anybody in the industry has the expertise to service LCD/Plasma TV’s due to their complexity.
Not only are they using many times the amount of electricity than conventional CRT’s, but huge Circuit Boards, costing hundreds of Dollars and weighing kilograms have to be interchanged, because that failed component somewhere on that board, weighing only grammes and costing a few dollars, is too diffucult to find. And where do you think these faulty boards end up ?! So these new generation TV’s are not only using much more energy than CRT TV’s do, but the faulty circuit boards invariably end up as landfill, poisoning the planet to boot. A double whammy.
There was nothing wrong with CRT televisions. I say if you want to watch a big screen, go to the cinema and mingle with people while you’re at it!
A good quality 32 inch CRT gives such a great picture and as we now see, uses less energy than LCD and Plasma. But almost all the CRT factories have been closed down.
Whilst I do agree that a move for governments to ban Plasma TV’s, would be rather dictatorial, consider the fact that the TV manufacturers and retailers themselves have taken your choice to buy a (greener) CRT TV, away from you. You can no longer find a mid to large-screen CRT in the shops anymore, at least not in my country.
In general I find it a sad indictment on today’s society, that the consumer more and more will opt for replacement of their Electronic Equipment, rather than consider extending it’s lifespan through the 100 year-old tradition of Repair and Maintainance.
People cite cost of repair as the determinimng factor, when deciding between repair or purchase. But cost is only HALF the story. The environmental impact is the other half!
Consider this: repairing a TV set on average requires a Spare Part weighing a few grammes to 1kg and having a volume the size of a pinhead to up to something like a pack of butter. Compare this to the 50kg+ of material used in the manufacture of a new TV set. I have worked out that the CARBON FOOTPRINT of NEW versus REPAIR = 50 to one!
Why is it therefore that PEOPLE are screaming out for action on global warming/climate change, when on the other hand they themselves are not doing the right thing? What hypocracy.!
Whilst I am not a climate change activist, I say don’t dump all the responsibility for action on climate change at the feet of your government. Responsiblity for change rests with the individual….
Frank D. Klamka, I couldn't agree more.
I've been to Best Buy, Ultimate Electronics, and Target…NONE of them have any more of these CRTs except Wal Mart, but they just only have two; one's a 20 inch and the other is a 27 inch and the lady said, "Like anyone will buy them", then I told her, "well they'd save more energy which would save you more money but NO, looks like that's not going to happen", and she literally said, "Are you kidding?" but then I had to leave. Just thought I'd leave her hanging with that question on her mind. Now where I live, which is in Oklahoma, nearly everyone almost has a LCD, plasma or whatever flat screen tv. However, I'm still glad that I have my two CRTs which work perfectly fine and have no problems. But not only have I heard AND read that these flat screen tvs suck more energy and money but they pose fire hazards (source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/… and have a problem called "burn-in" (another source: http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatv/plasm….
Your all really silly. You have at best a tenuous grasp on the facts here. Keep in mind that the proposed ban ban would only be apply to plasma tv’s. but i’d like to run through the wrong posts here.
“I have to say, maybe this is a good thing. TV just makes kids fat and violent. Also, plasma TVs which hold very little market share use more than 3-times as much energy! And with sales of televisions growing by 4 million a year, that’s kinda scary.”
Honestly its not the role of the government to stop me from spending my money the way I want to just because some kids dont get outside. I run 5-6 miles a day and when i get back from my run i like to collapse under the warmth of my 50 inch Kuro. There are things that make america way less healthy than tv. Futhermore plasma tv’s absolutely dont use 3 times the energy. Even the study you included in your own article says that its just over two which i disagree with. The number used by green movements is based on peak performance which is when the entire screen is white. Plasmas turn of the parts of their screen that are black during dark scenes which makes this number far lower and far closer to that of an LCD.
“The rapid introduction of Plasma and LCD Television has destroyed an industry. How many TV Repair shops are left these days?! Hardly anybody in the industry has the expertise to service LCD/Plasma TV’s due to their complexity.”
Is this really the fault of the television industry. Part of being a business is keeping up with technology. Should the government step in and ban the sales of plasmas just because the repair shops can’t keep up? This doesn’t even seem remotely related to the proposed ban on plasmas which by the way does not apply to lcds.
“I’ve been to Best Buy, Ultimate Electronics, and Target…NONE of them have any more of these CRTs except Wal Mart, but they just only have two; one’s a 20 inch and the other is a 27 inch and the lady said, “Like anyone will buy them”, then I told her, “well they’d save more energy which would save you more money but NO, looks like that’s not going to happen”, and she literally said, “Are you kidding?” but then I had to leave.”
Wow you sure showed her. Nothing pushes for companies to change like somebody coming in complaining about the lack of a technology 20 years outdated and than leaving without buying anything. If you are really hell bent on having a CRT there are literally hundreds of people trying to sell or give away theirs on Craigslist.
“But not only have I heard AND read that these flat screen tvs suck more energy and money but they pose fire hazards (source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2008974926_zhom03recalls.html), and have a problem called “burn-in” (another source: http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatv/plasmatv-burnin.html).”
This is where we get into lunacy and tinfoil hats. That fire recall applied to an absolutely minute fraction of the millions of tvs sold every year. The fact that 13,000 low end tvs failed is not cause for concern at an industry level. As for burn in i can’t begin to tell you how outdated you are on this. Even the article you link to says that “With a modicum of caution, most plasma TVs will probably never have a problem with image retention. A viewer may experience temporary ghosting, but this is not cause for alarm.”
Honestly everyone i know its fun to be an arm chair quarterback environmentalist and make enormous sweeping statements about things you know nothing about but it would be prudent to do just the tiniest bit of research beyond what comes in the press release or that bit of news you read in USA today.