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		Televisions
Definitions | The Numbers | Best In Class | Efficiency | Testing

Purchasing a TV today can be a daunting process. TV shopping used to be about finding the model with the best picture that one could afford, but now consumers need to wade through a sea of acronyms and technical jargon to figure out if their next TV should be standard, DTV, or HDTV, and whether they should buy into one of the “new” TV technologies like LCD, DLP, or PDP. With a wide array of technologies and formats on the market, a consumer can now encounter two TVs with the same size and performance that consume radically different amounts of energy over the course of a year. Some of the largest TVs can consume as much energy as a refrigerator. Unfortunately for consumers today, there is no way to spot the more efficient models when they walk into their local electronics store.

What do we mean when we say "television"?
Today’s TVs come in a wide range of sizes and technologies, from small cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions designed for use in a kitchen or bedroom to 50-inch plasma TVs designed for the discerning home theater owner. At their core, TVs are merely devices that display audiovisual content and that contain a built-in tuner capable of tuning off-air broadcasts. The presence of this tuner is what separates TVs from monitors. In the not-too-distant future, TVs and monitors are expected to converge into one single product category that might be described as “displays”.

TVs and the technical jargon used to describe them are both becoming increasingly complicated, and it would be impossible for EfficientProducts.org to provide a comprehensive crash course on all of the latest technologies and acronyms. Please see our “Other Useful Info” section on the right if you need more detail. At the most basic level, here is what you should know about the major trends that are sweeping the TV industry:

• Digital Television (DTV) – DTV is the industry’s term for a new standard in TV signals that is already transforming the TV landscape. Rather than representing TV pictures as an analog signal (like radio or standard broadcast TV), DTV transmits TV signals over the air and through wires as a series of digital ones and zeros. It will soon become the industry standard as older analog signals are phased out through an act of Congress.
• High definition television (HDTV) – HDTV is a new resolution format enabled by DTV that allows TVs to display widescreen images in high resolution (up to 1080 vertical lines of resolution or roughly triple the resolution of typical analog TVs). A TV that can display these images is called an HDTV. They have been the holy grail of home theater owners for some years now, but prices on HDTVs are coming down fast enough that even casual TV watchers will soon own these high performance TVs.
• New TV technologies – The standard cathode ray tube (CRT) is no longer the only kid on the TV block. TVs are now available in liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP), Digital Light Projection (DLP), and other flavors too numerous to mention here. The jury is still out on which type may eventually dominate the market and how this will affect the total amount of energy consumed by TVs..

How many televisions are in use and how much energy do they use?
Five hours – the amount of time that a TV is turned on in the average American home every day[1]. With families spending that much time in front of the tube, and with about 260 million TVs installed in U.S. households today[2], it’s no wonder that TVs are consuming their fair share of the nation’s electricity. In fact, the number of TVs is growing fast enough that there will soon be one TV for every U.S. citizen! With the transition to DTV, many consumers will be purchasing newer, larger HDTVs to upgrade their home theaters. Many households will simply move the old TV to a bedroom or den, further increasing the number of TVs in use.

TVs consume about 47 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year in the U.S. or about 1% of the nation’s entire electricity production. TVs use over 90% of this energy when the set is turned on. The remaining 10% is used in standby mode when the set has been turned off by the consumer. TV use in the U.S. results in a $4.5 billion electricity bill and releases over 30 million tons of CO₂ from power plants. Unless TV efficiency improves, the rapid growth in TV sales, increased hours of TV viewing, and multiple TVs per household will ultimately contribute to a rise in TV energy consumption by about 50% before 2010 [3].

But what does this mean to an individual consumer? Behind the TVs in your home is a substantial electricity bill, and inefficient TVs could be costing you extra money. A typical 36-inch CRT television, for example, uses about 300 kWh of electricity every year, costing the consumer about $25; however, more efficient models of the same size and performance are also available that could cut electric bills by over $10 per year. This might not sound like much compared to the price of a TV, but over the lifetime of the product and with multiple TVs in the home, the dollars can add up. Combine these numbers with a modest sampling of other home entertainment equipment that Americans typically own, such as set top boxes and VCRs, and the resulting annual energy consumption approaches 1200 kWh per year or about 10% of the average American household’s electricity bill[4]!

Whatever energy is saved by switching to more efficient electronics ultimately helps the environment by reducing the carbon dioxide emissions and other emissions from power plants. If all TVs were more efficient, it would be the equivalent of removing over 1.5 million passenger cars from our roads[5].

How can I find today's most efficient televisions?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program began labeling energy-efficient TVs in 1998 based on the amount of electricity that they use in standby mode (when the user has turned off the TV, but the set is still plugged into an AC outlet). ENERGY STAR most recently finalized version 3.0 of its TV specification. In this version, TVs must meet efficiency criteria for both active (when the TV is on) and standby modes. Version 3.0, to become effective in November 2008, recognizes the real opportunity for energy savings in active when the TV consumes the most power. For more information on how to find efficient televisions, visit the ENERGY STAR television web site.

Below are some tips that will help you to keep ahead of the game and shop for a greener TV even before the new ENERGY STAR specification hits the streets:

• In smaller screen sizes – say, less than 40 inches – LCD televisions are generally more efficient than CRT televisions, especially when you are comparing HDTV models. Prices on LCD TVs are expected to continue dropping, so you might consider one of these for your next TV purchase.
• In large screen sizes – the 50 inch and above category – a projection TV is likely to be your most efficient buy. These TVs can consume half the electricity of comparably sized flat-panel TVs of the same size like plasma and LCD TVs.
• For intermediate sizes in the 40 to 50 inch range, it is difficult to pick a real efficiency champion. Most TVs sold in this category today are LCD or plasma flat-panel displays, and these two technologies are still evolving so rapidly that characterizing their efficiency by technology is difficult. Check back with EfficientProducts.org frequently as we continue to report on this popular size range.
• You can start greening your TV today with the push of a button. Most TVs are shipped in overly bright, retail showroom settings that waste energy. Choose a slightly dimmer setting from your TV's on-screen menu. These settings are often referred to as "Movie" or "Pro" and can also significantly improve picture quality under most viewing conditions. For more information about screen dimming, check out recent research, including a video demonstration of the impacts.
• In the near future, LED (light emitting diode) backlit LCD televisions will present a more energy efficient option for larger flat panel screen sizes. Using LED modulation, LCDs will soon be able to dim whole regions of the screen that do not require maximum light output, thus saving energy.
• OLED (organic light emitting diode) TVs may also present an option for high quality picture with minimal energy costs. Keep your eye out for this technology in the next couple of years.
• Check back with EfficientProducts.org often for information about the most efficient TV models and be sure to start looking for the latest ENERGY STAR TVs starting in fall of 2008.

What is the definition of efficiency for televisions?
ENERGY STAR defines TV efficiency using a watts-per-square inch metric that signifies how many watts of power are consumed by a TV to illuminate a square inch of its screen area. This approach considers that larger TVs consume more power than smaller TVs. The metric normalizes for TV screen size and therefore remains technology neutral, measuring a wide variety of technologies using the same efficiency yardstick. For more information about current efficiency metrics, we recommend visiting the ENERGY STAR program’s TV specification revision page.

Is there a way to test efficiency?
TV experts have developed a handful of test methods that deal with measuring the power consumption or efficiency of TVs. ENERGY STAR tests efficiency using IEC's (International Electrochemical Commission) 62087 test protocol. For more information about TV test methods, we recommend visiting the ENERGY STAR program’s TV specification revision page.

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What's New

NEW! Save Energy, Save Your Picture
Simple ways to save 10% or more of your TV's energy use today.

Research

Tuning In to Energy Efficiency: Prospects for Saving Energy in Televisions
A 4-page summary of NRDC's research into the efficiency of TVs.

NRDC Report on TV Efficiency (2005)
A comprehensive report of NRDC's research into the efficiency of TVs.

Test Methods

NRDC Presentation on TV Test Methods
Presentation given at a TV international stakeholder meeting in June of 2005 on the need and challenges for a TV test method that measures active power.

Programs and Policies

ENERGY STAR Television Label

ENERGY STAR TV Spec Revision Page

Australian Greenhouse Office - Home Electronics

UK Market Transformation Programme - TVs

Japan TopRunner Program

Other Useful Info

How Stuff Works - TVs

How Stuff Works -
Digital Television

How Stuff Works - HDTV

CNET - HDTV World

CNET - TV Reviews

Google Directory - TVs

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