New Energy Star Requirement Dumps Your Giant Plasma

[admin]

New Energy Star requirements for televisions are the strictest yet. Version 5.3 has come into effect this month and has removed many of our largest HDTVs from compliance – chances are your 50+ inch plasma didn’t make the cut. New requirements carry a hard cap at 108-watts for any television, regardless of screen size.

Discuss "New Energy Star Requirement Dumps Your Giant Plasma" here. Read the article.

 

[3db]

Ya have to wonder (as I look over my shoulder to see if anyone is watching) if this is a conspiracy against plasma devices arranged by some LCD consortium? Money takls and makes the rules even when these rules are wrong. Yes its a good idea to save electricity but hitting the plasma's this hard is a been ridiculous..this coming from an LCD owner.

 

[Wayde Robson]

As a plasma owner... maybe

There is no doubt that it throws off heat. I have a relatively small HT room about 11x14 feet or so... in the winter I have no problem keeping that room heated while rocking the plasma.

 

[highfigh]

This will only reduce energy use by a small margin because large plasma setc aren't the majority of sales units. Also, the less our devices use and the more we reduce our use in general, the more $/KWh it will cost. Power companies know how much it costs to operate for a year and price energy accordingly. If we drop our use, that cost of doing business will change relative to the amount of fuel needed, but as the number of customers increases, the amount of fuel will remain fairly constant so, even if we decrease our use, our bill will not decrease much, if at all. IMO.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

ps: If you think that your new 65" LCD will automatically pass this new power requirement with flying color - I have some bad news for you

 

[agarwalro]

Panasonic TC-P55VT30 is rated at 106 Watts
Panasonic TC-P60GT30 is rated at 139 Watts
Panasonic TC-P65GT30 is rated at 159 Watts

Conceivably the 60" can be made efficient and brought into compliance but the 65" will go away, get yours soon!

 

[3db]

dumb question here...Does this legally prevent manufacturers from making sets that burn more than the new suggested rating? If so, aren't they indirectly trying to control the size of the display?

 

[sholling]

I don't think an energy start rating is a requirement in most states but starting soon California will be banning TVs that use "too much" energy.

 

[Jason626]

I bet they'll still sell them just not in the U.S.
Other countries can do what they want.

 

[Warpdrv]

Are we saying with this article that if it doesn't fall into the specs, it just doesn't get an energy star rating sticker...?

If thats the case I could care less.... Boo Hoo no sticker

 

[Wayde Robson]

Are we saying with this article that if it doesn't fall into the specs, it just doesn't get an energy star rating sticker...?

If thats the case I could care less.... Boo Hoo no sticker

that's exactly it, it's just a directive, it's not a law... at least not yet that I know of. It's possible that California could adopt a policy of not selling any non-ES compliant set but that would be silly... you could go to another state and get it and it would retailers in CA.

Bascially... you don't get a sticker.

 

[sholling]

that's exactly it, it's just a directive, it's not a law... at least not yet that I know of. It's possible that California could adopt a policy of not selling any non-ES compliant set but that would be silly... you could go to another state and get it and it would retailers in CA.

Bascially... you don't get a sticker.

California adopts energy restrictions for TVs

The general rule of thumb in California is that if something hasn't been restricted, banned or taxed to death just wait a day or two and it will be.

 

[Nemo128]

Energy Star is kinda like THX. It's a marketing badge... for now.

 

[majorloser]

California adopts energy restrictions for TVs

The general rule of thumb in California is that if something hasn't been restricted, banned or taxed to death just wait a say or two and it will be.

MOVE AWAY FROM CALI!!!


I love this quote from the article you posted,

"Since the sale of flat-panel televisions began to rocket early in the decade, TV-related power usage has more than tripled to 10 billion kilowatt-hours per year, accounting for nearly 10% of residential electricity consumption, said Commissioner Arthur Rosenfeld, a nuclear physicist and UC Berkeley professor."

Isn't it more likely that people are using less electricity to cool and heat their homes (the largest part of the bill), whether is is due to installing newer, more efficient equipment or just changing the thermostat setting since they can't afford the large bills? So if you are using less power to do the largest part of your bill, then the smaller usage items become a larger percentage of the total bill. Let's face it, California pays through the bunghole for power. People just can't afford their bills and are forced to cut back somewhere.

It's a never ending cycle, the more efficient you make one item, the less efficient another item become in comparison

Hey, but who am I to complain. I have a front projector for most of my viewing and a 50" plasma in the bedroom. And that's not even taking into account all the amps and other equipment it takes just so I can flick through the channels to find out there's nothing really worth watching in the first place.

Now for more important efficiency choices. Should I drive my 5.9L gas pickup that gets 12 mpg or my 6.7L diesel pickup that gets 13 mpg?

 

[sholling]

Energy Star is kinda like THX. It's a marketing badge... for now.

I'm not sure if the rules still apply but if I recall correctly an energy star rating started out as requirement to qualify for purchase by the US government. The government buys a lot of stuff and access to that market was an incentive to lower energy usage.

MOVE AWAY FROM CALI!!!

I wish I could afford to. I'd planned on retiring to Nevada by now but the RE market crash reduced my net assets by a bit too much. I'm still well in the black but I can't afford to move. I can't afford to stay either because the state has us paying well above the national average for electricity and plan to jack it up by a lot more to pay for !@#$% green energy. In a well insulated (for California) 1500sqft home I pay $170-370/mo for electricity depending on how much I need to run the AC. I'd guess that $75-100/mo of that is my A/V gear.

In contrast my gas bill varies from $13 in the summer to $45/mo to heat the house and water and cook in the dead of winter.

 

[picture_shooter]

I own an older model 50" Plasma. They better haul me away before my Plasma. I be damn..................

 

[mtrycrafts]

This will only reduce energy use by a small margin because large plasma setc aren't the majority of sales units. Also, the less our devices use and the more we reduce our use in general, the more $/KWh it will cost. Power companies know how much it costs to operate for a year and price energy accordingly. If we drop our use, that cost of doing business will change relative to the amount of fuel needed, but as the number of customers increases, the amount of fuel will remain fairly constant so, even if we decrease our use, our bill will not decrease much, if at all. IMO.

Well, my not so large LCD, 42", a few years old, is over this new mandate
And I wonder about the new slim line, where do they come in at?

 

[BMXTRIX]

Much like everything else which has any large entity involvement, it seems the Energy Star is run by a bunch of clueless fools instead of people who don't have their heads up their own buttocks.

Every TV should be broken into a size class and within that size class a specific goal for Energy Star rating should be set with a progressively more difficult level for that rating. We've seen plasmas thinned up over the years, and I would imagine less power going to them with more efficient design.

The problem is that they are also making cruddier and cruddier product now. Instead of product you buy which draws more power, but lasts 20+ years, you buy something which has minimal quality and undersized power supplies which fails within just a few years, and this movement is being continued with exactly this type of foolish initiatives.

If they were smart, the focus wouldn't be on Energy Star, but on quality of merchandise above all else. Something which could last for decades and trumps that which needs constant repair or replacement.

Really though, even a elementary school kid would understand that you don't put out the same expectations across the board. You don't give a calculus test to the second graders, you give them second grade level tests, and you continue that on up through all the grades. Yet, they put down a power requirement for all displays like they are all the same.

So, when I buy that 19" TV which sucks over 100 watts they will be so happy that I have an Energy Star sticker on it, but the 60"+ display which draws 112 watts will be frowned upon.

Stupid is a stupid does I suppose.

I do fully expect California to give this policy a great big hug of stupid.

 

[Wayde Robson]

If the government wants my 58-inch plasma I have five words: "From my cold dead hands!"

 

[agarwalro]

I am an AH, no doubt about it, I got a 50" Panny Pro plasma (when it cost as much as 2 months of mortgage money), I crave that Anthem P2 (for the sweet love of bragging watts and because it needs TWO 20A circuits), I had a speaker and subwoofer set that was the bane of my neighbors, but I wanted more more more. Nothing will ever change that. I has AH .

That said, this is the correct direction to take for a consortium that can make more impact to the global energy crisis than any sizable group of individuals trying to be green. This is true green thinking, not like having a EV with the batteries that created the rare metals crisis (which is also affecting the AH community).