That sleek flat-panel TV may look small, but it could well be a big power hog.
When the Australian government wanted to create a six-star system to rate the energy efficiency of television sets, it found that most of the big plasma sets wouldn’t meet its minimum requirements. They could be banned as a result.
This is bad news for Panasonic and other makers of plasma sets, which have been losing ground to LCD sets recently anyway. The Australian report said some LCD sets would fail its test as well.
The standards in the United States don’t seem to be as strict, but government tests show that plasma sets are more likely to be energy hogs. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site, 153 LCD models that are 36 inches and larger have earned its EnergyStar certification, compared to only 83 plasma sets.
The problem is hardly new. In 2005, the Natural Resources Defense Council warned in a report that television energy use in the United States was set to increase 50 percent from 2004 to 2009.
And earlier this month, the International Electrotechnical Commission, a Geneva-based group that publishes energy standards, released what Reuters called “the world’s most boring television show,” a ten-minute series of shapes and colors that is meant to be used to measure the efficiency of plasma and LCD sets.
The Greentechmedia blog reported that the E.P.A. is looking at using this test for new tougher EnergyStar standards in the United States. If the agency reaches the same conclusion that its Australian counterpart did, you may want to think twice about inviting your Prius-driving friends to watch the next Live Earth concert on your giant plasma set.
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