Giant plasma TVs face ban in battle to green Britain – Green Living, Environment – The Independent — Meanwhile when engineers calculate the energy used per square inch of display — a more meaningful calculation — the difference is either nil, or the plasma has better numbers than a CRT. So the real anti-green thing here is the size, period. Smaller is greener, should be the catch-phrase.

Energy-guzzling flatscreen plasma televisions will soon be banned as part of the battle against climate change, ministers have told The Independent on Sunday.

“Minimum energy performance standards” for televisions are expected to be agreed across Europe this spring, they say, and this should lead to “phasing out the most inefficient TVs”. At the same time, a compulsory labelling system will be drawn up to identify the best and worst devices.

The moves, which follow last week’s withdrawal of the 100W incandescent lightbulb, are part of a drive to slow the rapid growth of electricity consumption in homes by phasing out wasteful devices and introducing more efficient ones. Giant plasma televisions – dubbed “the 4x4s of the living room” – can consume four times as much energy as traditional TVs that used cathode ray tubes (CRTs).

Over the past 30 years, the number of electric appliances and gadgets in a typical home has almost trebled – from 17 to 47 – as a host of devices from scanners to security systems, cappuccino makers to computer game consoles have joined the more traditional kettles, irons, vacuum cleaners and cookers.

Found by Joe Carlson.




  1. James Hill says:

    Interesting story, as next generation plasmas are going to cut power usage by half. Due to the limited number of plasma screen makers, could there be an industry-based motive behind this?

  2. James Hill says:

    #2 – Did you enjoy going to Macworld?

  3. sargasso says:

    Standby power dissipation, is the real issue here. My plasma TV dissipates 10W in standby, at much as a modern WiFi router left on. But it replaced a 14 year old CRT TV which was a wonderful source of XRays, ozone gas and 50lb of leaded glass.

  4. ECA says:

    WELL,
    lets see what happens with the 200hz NEW systems coming out..OR if we are heading to the Laser Projection mitshubishi..WHICH takes <1/2 the power..and has a better picture and LIFE SPAN.

  5. Mister Mustard says:

    Ooohh nooooo! They’re trying to ban our god-given right to watch Hannah Montana on a 102″ screen!

    Forget war, famine, disease, pestilence, and gay marriage. This is simply intolerable!

  6. GregA says:

    #6,

    It was the last Macworld. Apple is going to CES next year and I suspect thats the end of it.

  7. James Hill says:

    #5 – The laser projection systems are hype, just like the 3D stuff being pitched about. The TV market is in for a rude awakening, because we’re hitting a window where picture quality isn’t going to improve for a few years, which is what drives sales.

    #6 – The real story is that Jobs has never been a fan of Macworld, but needed the event to cater to the Mac converted. Now that iPod/iPhone buyers are base of the company, he can finally get away from this event and Apple can talk to customers on their own terms.

    #7 – Angry Whopper is a Hannah Montana fan. No shock there.

  8. James Hill says:

    #8 – Based on the communication my company has had with IDG, I’m convinced the event will go on in 2010. No one, not even IDG, knows if enough people will show to justify the event beyond that.

    As for Apple going to CES, while I know the Mac blogs are all a tither over it, I see it as a non-story. CES isn’t a public event, and only serves Apple to show that their devices are better than the competition… which is the air the company has built already.

  9. skeptic says:

    This seems like a crazy waste of time. If you put on your tin foil hat you could bet someone with ties to the Movie industry is behind this.

    Watching movies from home is much cheaper than the theater and this would be a huge loss of revenue for the industry.

  10. bill says:

    I remember during a ‘halftime’ at a ‘football’ game in England that the lights dimmed while every one in England put on an electric kettle to make a pot of tea! (a long time ago) I do remember that their kettle heated up so fast because it was 240V!!! I want one of those!!!

    I also remember the telly with the 12″ CRT

    The tea was great! with warm scones and homemade jam and cream!

  11. brm says:

    #7 Mustard:

    This *is* intolerable.

    A better solution is to allow energy producers to raise their prices. This is a natural consequence of increased demand. The higher prices would force *all* appliance manufacturers to make *all* of their devices more efficient.

    Instead, we have caps on energy prices, and then go and increase the size of government just to force one type of device to conform to a standard.

  12. eyeofthetiger says:

    hmm …Britain.

  13. MikeN says:

    This is good. Now they need to put a maximum size on these things to lower the power use even more, with some max contrast & brightness rules.

    And if he ever sets foot in Britain, arrest Al Gore!

  14. hhopper says:

    #9 – JH – I don’t know about laser being all hype. I wouldn’t mind having Mitsubishi’s 65″ laser projection TV.

  15. chris says:

    I wonder what the total electrical usage of the CCTV system is?

  16. billabong says:

    Oh fu*k it I think I’ll go have a pint.

  17. Jägermeister says:

    #16 – hhopper

    And this girl has real boobs… 😉

  18. Mister Mustard says:

    #19 – Jägermeister

    I like the scar on her tit. Scars and bruises are always hot.

  19. Jägermeister says:

    #20 – Mister Mustard

    If failed plastic surgery is a turn-on for someone, this lady will give give an instant orgasm…

  20. deowll says:

    I would say the main problem with many of these is instant on. That is they draw power even when they are supposed to be off.

    If you use electric heat the energy from the giant big screen just means you use less in the heater during the winter. Running the tv should have no impact on your electric bill at all.

    Of course if you run one during the summer and use and air conditioner you do run up your power bill more.

  21. bobbo says:

    #24–Eric==you got things a bit backward there. All other things being equal==bigger houses and cars is better than smaller. The GOAL of thinking green is not to reduce the quality of life but to increase or only maintain the quality of life within available resources. Its a simple equation not meant to reduce quality of life as some sackcloth of virtue.

    With more people overpopulating the earth, yes, people will have to live with less impact, smaller houses and such==that is a consequence of too many people, not the purpose set goal of conservation.

  22. Animby says:

    This is simply a tax. The UK already taxes it’s citizens beyond sanity so they hide the taxes whenever they can. When I lived in Britain, there was always talk of needing new power -plants to keep up with the demand for electricity. So, tax the big screens to pay for more power and if they stifle the demand at the same time? Well, what the heck? The Brits are good at bunker mentality. Just remember: No new taxes on beer or fags! Go ahead and tax dentistry.

  23. IditarodDog says:

    Just to provide some basis:
    “Joan Ruddock, the UK’s Minister for Climate Change, said: “In 2006, consumer electronics used 15% of the UK’s total domestic electricity consumption. If we do nothing, that could double by 2020…” See:
    http://news.icm.ac.uk/business/retail/standby-for-action/218/

    And that’s for devices that are OFF!!!!

  24. Winston Smith says:

    So the British government decides the way to cut greenhouse gases caused by electricity production is to outlaw light bulbs and appliances.

    Wouldn’t it be a better idea to generate electricity by ways that do not create greenhouse gases?

  25. Winston Smith says:

    The British government decides the way to cut greenhouse gases caused by electricity production is to outlaw appliances that use electricity.

    Wouldn’t it be a better idea to generate electricity by ways that do not create greenhouse gases?

  26. ECA says:

    For TV’s it would be NICE to use better tech..
    you TV is always in a STANDBY State to keep the PROGRAMMED channels, and INSTANT ON, charged..
    Once we get CHARGED capacitors working. They can use them as Battery backup. AND instant on CHARGING..

  27. smartalix says:

    I’d like to see the research that shows plasmas son’t use more power than LCDs. I did a quick look-up, and found:

    Sony 52-inch LCD: 380 W
    Panasonic 42-inch Plasma: 573 W

    I have always found that a plasma pulls more power than an LCD, and this difference in consumption will increase as LED-driven LCDs become more prevalent. In addition, a\ properl-made LED-driven LCD has a color gamut superior to a plasma, as the LED light sources involved are closer to the points of the chromaticity chart.

  28. norm1037 says:

    It’s not really down to the British Government taking unilateral action to ban plasma screens.

    EU governments are finalising a standard for televisions. There will be an EU mandatory regulation (which even our British government will have to comply with 🙂 ) to ban worst performers such as large power hungry plasma screens in order to save electricity.

    Plasma screens that are eco-friendly will not be banned.

  29. MikeN says:

    Bobbo, that’s dangerous talk. You might find yourself cast out of the environmentalist movement. For too many of them, the goal is lowering the quality of life, at least in the aspects they don’t care about. So smaller cars and houses, eliminating suburbs and pushing everyone into the city, etc.

  30. ECA says:

    29,
    smart…
    AND what about the NEW Laservue..which is supposed to take 1/2 the power of LED.


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