[Tuike]

Quote from po.com news.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]As TVs grow, so do electric bills

Not long ago, Andrew Fanara was shopping with his wife for a new big-screen television. Everything was going fine, until the sales clerk discovered Mr. Fanara was an energy watchdog for the federal government. Pulling Fanara aside, the clerk confessed: His own new 61-inch TV gulped electricity the way a big SUV guzzles gasoline.

"The month after he got it, he got a call from his landlord, who noticed a big jump in the utility bill," recalls Fanara, team leader of the Energy Star program at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "It was the kid's big-screen television."

[Ayoob]

Ask me anything about having a 21" monitor and a five-speaker sound system on my computer.

[0mar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', 'A')sk me anything about having a 21" monitor and a five-speaker sound system on my computer.

[FatherOfTwo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tuike', 'Q')uote from po.com news.

-Do you feel that buying a 61" plasma television would be same as buying an SUV right now? At least I feel that way now that I read the news. Energy prices are surely going up.

[Tuike]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FatherOfTwo', 'M')y initial, un-researched answer would be that electronics equipment require nowhere near as much energy as an automobile. If everyone gave up their SUV for a new plasma, we’d be a lot better off.

[Ayoob_Reloaded]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', 'A')sk me anything about having a 21" monitor and a five-speaker sound system on my computer.

[NeoPeasant]

I just sent in the mortgage check with an additional $2000 principal reduction payment while we are still watching the old 13" tv-vcr combo with the broken rewind. The $2000 would have bought a kick-ass flat screen, but I am more concerned about facing a postpeak depression with a debt free home.

If my notebook computer had a video input we could just attach it to our old vcr and and use the vcr tuner to make a TV.

[jato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')oes it kick ass when you are watching Hawaiian Butt Nurses 7?

[PhilBiker]

I've been a home theater enthusiast for many years, since long before learning about peak oil.

The new Plasma sets gobble electricity like there's no tomorrow and generate lots of heat. I wouldn't buy one. The LCDs are pretty efficient.

But not all big screens do. Sme of the projection sets are not much worse than a few bright light bulbs. Projectors often don't take any more juice than a desktop computer.

[FatherOfTwo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PhilBiker', 'I')'ve been a home theater enthusiast for many years, since long before learning about peak oil.

The new Plasma sets gobble electricity like there's no tomorrow and generate lots of heat. I wouldn't buy one. The LCDs are pretty efficient.

But not all big screens do. Sme of the projection sets are not much worse than a few bright light bulbs. Projectors often don't take any more juice than a desktop computer.

[PhilBiker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') love my Sanyo Z3 projector!
102" display, vibrant colors, pretty good blacks and only a couple K to buy it!

[mohomesteading]

The more nonrenewable energy we consume in our daily lives, the worse off we are. But even if we stayed with what we already have, our offspring will still add to the power consumption just using the same powered objects we are.

In March 2006 our rural electric cooperative will be raising electric rates about 4%. That isn't too much, but if you go from your regular old electronics and start adding newer, hungrier items, well, then you will have a problem.

I figure that the situation is like the following. I have what I have right now and I well enjoy its use while it functions. If it quits working and I have to have it, I will find the most effecient replacement I can. If it is just a luxury, then I will learn to do without it. For those things that I can do manually, I will learn to do them as such.

In the end though it matters little what people choose to use inside and outside their homes. Once the price for energy goes up, it goes up. People will either cut back on consumption, maintain existing consumption or will choose to increase consumption and the prices be damned. Yes, that is pretty apparent, but I can't say what people will do as a whole because I see so much variability in thought processes that I know some in each group.

Those that wish to consume more and more each day are the ones I won't help out if they get in a bind. They can fend for themselves when times get tough.

[PhilBiker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mohomesteading', 'I') figure that the situation is like the following. I have what I have right now and I well enjoy its use while it functions. If it quits working and I have to have it, I will find the most effecient replacement I can. If it is just a luxury, then I will learn to do without it. For those things that I can do manually, I will learn to do them as such.

[0mar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob_Reloaded', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', 'A')sk me anything about having a 21" monitor and a five-speaker sound system on my computer.

[Sparaxis]

I love journalistic license: Andrew Fanara doesn't even have a wife.

Anyway, at the current state of development, it makes much more sense to buy a big-screen LCD than plasma if you are concerned about energy consumption. LCD rear projection TVs aren't as thin as the true flat panel, but more affordable than the flat-panel ones now (and still much thinner than CRTs). Mine is Energy Star-rated and tested at 0.75 W in standby mode (off). But as the article noted, that's not where the energy is used--it's mostly in active mode.

Week after next, as the article noted, we are having a meeting, first to discuss how to reign in TV active mode energy consumption, followed by a day to look at how to reduce set-top-box consumption (those are real hogs..even off, they consume 20W of power.) Typically, this means that by end of 2006, we'll likely have a specification in place for TVs and STBs that will finally give consumers a choice between the hogs and the efficient models.

I think the interesting point in the article is that we've found that a big TV, combined with an set-top box (and perhaps second or third ones in other rooms), combined with a DVD player, combined with a receiver and stereo system, can now add up to consume more electricity than your refrigerator (and US refrigerators are now the most stringently efficient in the world).

The problem is, none of these boxes talk to each other. The DVD player doesn't know if the TV is on--the TV doesn't know if the stereo is on, etc.--and a lack of a communication protocol among these devices makes it difficult for manufacturers to build in mechanisms to power down the box when ithe box its connected to is not in use. A "smart power strip" (commercially available now) is one option--plug all your stuff into this, and it can sense the on/off state of each box, and shut other boxes down accordingly. Only the set-top box presents a problem, since it has to be in some power mode all the time since the decryption codes are sent over long periods of time to prevent hacking, and they, unfortunately, are the biggest offenders in energy waste. It wouldn't cost much to design one that could stay on in low power mode, but given the fact that the design specs are from the cable companies, and the boxes are built by manufacturers like Motorola, and consumers can't buy them directly, it's difficult to provide motivation to spend the money to design it lower. So we hope an Energy Star spec will provide that motivation.

[hoplite]

you'd be surprised how much power your wasting with electronics- wall warts (xformers) for example are very wasteful if left plugged in 24/7 (like most people do). Some cable tv set top boxes consume 45 watts when their OFF!

[PhilBiker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he problem is, none of these boxes talk to each other. The DVD player doesn't know if the TV is on--the TV doesn't know if the stereo is on, etc.--and a lack of a communication protocol among these devices makes it difficult for manufacturers to build in mechanisms to power down the box when ithe box its connected to is not in use. A "smart power strip" (commercially available now) is one option--plug all your stuff into this, and it can sense the on/off state of each box, and shut other boxes down accordingly. Only the set-top box presents a problem, since it has to be in some power mode all the time since the decryption codes are sent over long periods of time to prevent hacking, and they, unfortunately, are the biggest offenders in energy waste. It wouldn't cost much to design one that could stay on in low power mode, but given the fact that the design specs are from the cable companies, and the boxes are built by manufacturers like Motorola, and consumers can't buy them directly, it's difficult to provide motivation to spend the money to design it lower. So we hope an Energy Star spec will provide that motivation.

[linlithgowoil]

i think you're going a bit overboard with all this. i know people should really think about energy a lot more but electronics devices are not the problem - its our reliance on individual cars that is the main problem.

having said that, i do tend to buy energy efficient things now, when before i never even thought about it. our tv is a 28" widescreen standard tv by jvc - it doesnt use a huge amount of power and i never leave it on standby. the biggest energy guzzler we have is our tumble dryer which - when you turn it on - sends our spinny electricity meter racing round incredibly fast

[agni]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('linlithgowoil', 'i') think you're going a bit overboard with all this. i know people should really think about energy a lot more but electronics devices are not the problem - its our reliance on individual cars that is the main problem.

having said that, i do tend to buy energy efficient things now, when before i never even thought about it. our tv is a 28" widescreen standard tv by jvc - it doesnt use a huge amount of power and i never leave it on standby. the biggest energy guzzler we have is our tumble dryer which - when you turn it on - sends our spinny electricity meter racing round incredibly fast

[cube]

hang drying your clothes seems a bit extreme....although I hear they do that in Japan b/c of the phenomenaly high energy costs....and Japan is known as a wealthy country.

I'm guessing air conditioning would be the biggest energy hog in terms of electricity use. I know I'm not the only person here who had a father that would sneak down at night when everyone was alseep on a hot summer night to turn off the air conditioning hoping nobody would notice.