UHD TV's could raise energy costs considerably

[JohnAV]

Based on the NRDC article - The Big Picture: Ultra High-Definition Televisions Could Add $1 Billion to Viewers' Annual Electric Bills

• Going forward, consumers will likely be buying new ultra high-definition (UHD) televisions instead of high-definition versions for all models 36 inches and larger. Once this transition is completed, U.S. consumers will need to pay an extra $1 billion in annual energy costs to operate their new TVs unless further energy efficiency improvements are made.
• NRDC's analysis found there were dramatic differences in the power consumption among UHD models of the same size, indicating the technology already exists to make energy-saving improvements to the most inefficient UHD televisions.
• TV manufacturers and governmental policymakers must act to ensure that our televisions do not waste electricity, which leads to an increased need to burn polluting fossil fuels to generate it.
• Consumers can cut several hundred dollars off the lifetime energy costs of a new UHD TV by a) buying models with the ENERGY STAR® label, b) ensuring Automatic Brightness Control is enabled, and c) avoiding the quick start feature on Internet-connected televisions that results in significant amounts of wasted standby power.

Wonder if some of the UDTV's vendors forget about the EOL with Plasma's in the race to implement HDR, Dolby Vision and like?

[Opips3]

JohnAV,

You mean people doesn't care about environment on the earth? Ozone layer of the earth is survive without a life. warm...warmer...hot...hottest...burning up!!

I'm so stupid. Do you think I'll stop to spending on entertainment electronic?

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Opips3

JohnAV,

You mean people doesn't care about environment on the earth? Ozone layer of the earth is survive without a life. warm...warmer...hot...hottest...burning up!!

I'm so stupid. Do you think I'll stop to spending on entertainment electronic?

You can read the PDF report it covers energy provider concerns/research with recent UDTV's design in depth. They are merely advising the manufacturers on good design goals since well managed energy usage in United States is important. This was posted here for informational purposes only.

[ZoetMB]

Going forward, consumers will likely be buying new ultra high-definition (UHD) televisions instead of high-definition versions for all models 36 inches and larger. Once this transition is completed, U.S. consumers will need to pay an extra $1 billion in annual energy costs to operate their new TVs unless further energy efficiency improvements are made.

There are 320 million people in the U.S., so $1 billion translates to a little over $3 per year per person or about $8.33 per household (69 cents a month).

But that assumes that EVERYONE is going to upgrade, which is ridiculous. It will take 20 years for everyone to upgrade. There are still plenty of people using old SD CRTs and many other people won't upgrade their current HD sets until they stop working.

And it also assumes that manufacturers are never going to find a way to improve efficiency. That's certainly not the case.

And maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see anything inherent to UHD that requires more energy. Isn't most of the energy in a TV consumed by the backlight?

Besides, at the same time people are upgrading their TVs, they're also in the process of stopping the use of incandescent bulbs and replacing them with LED lighting, which consumes far less energy.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

And maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see anything inherent to UHD that requires more energy. Isn't most of the energy in a TV consumed by the backlight?

That's kind of what they're saying too. They say in one of their bullet points that they've observed a wide variance when comparing UHD sets of similar sizes from which they conclude that high energy usage is not inherent to UHD and that UHD manufacturers can keep energy usage down if that's a priority.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by octagon

That's kind of what they're saying too. They say in one of their bullet points that they've observed a wide variance when comparing UHD sets of similar sizes from which they conclude that high energy usage is not inherent to UHD and that UHD manufacturers can keep energy usage down if that's a priority.

I was shopping for LED flood lights the other day at a Lowes. It was interesting how much deviation you have on rated lumen vs watts of several equivalent flood lights, ignoring angle of dispersion which varies a awful lot also. I'm betting the same is true, that LED backlighting technology varies quite a bit for whats being used inside UDTV designs.