Big Screens bad for the Enviroment?

**pgg** · 09-18-09, 05:25 PM

State may pull plug on big-screen energy guzzlers | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA

State may pull plug on big-screen energy guzzlers
More efficient sets could be required starting in 2011
NY Times A customer looking at TV monitors on display at the Best Buy in Manhattan in November 2008.

By MARC LIFSHER
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Published: Friday, September 18, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 11:27 p.m.
SACRAMENTO — Concerned that the growing popularity of big-screen TVs could make it harder for California to keep pace with electricity demand, state energy regulators are poised to crack down on energy-guzzling sets despite opposition from a powerful electronics trade group.

The first-in-the-nation TV efficiency standards would require electronics retailers to sell only energy-sipping models starting in 2011. Even tougher efficiency criteria would follow in 2013. The California Energy Commission is slated to unveil the new standards today, followed by a 45-day public comment period. The commission is expected to approve the measure in early November.

The rules, which took more than a year to develop, are designed to shave $8.1 billion off Californians' electricity bills over a 10-year-period. That works out to $30 per set per year, according to commission officials.

It will also help California utilities head off the need to build more power plants just so residents can watch “American Idol” and other shows. TVs already account for 10 percent of residential energy use in California, driven largely by surging demand for large-screen TVs. Strict state mandates for cutting greenhouse gas emissions are further pressuring officials to act.

“Increased efficiency is the most cost-effective way of meeting our renewable-energy goals,” commission Chairwoman Karen Douglas said.

Environmentalists have applauded those efforts. But some industry groups, including the Consumer Electronics Association, dispute the notion that the new efficiency rules would benefit consumers.

About a quarter of currently available TV models would have to be pulled from store shelves, said Doug Johnson, senior director for technology policy with the Arlington, Va., group that represents TV makers, distributors, retailers and installers.

That could raise TV prices, put home theater installers and wholesalers out of business and destroy jobs, he said. The association contends that the regulations would force TV buyers to buy banned sets from out-of-state dealers over the Internet, depriving California retailers of customers and state and local governments of needed sales tax and corporate income tax revenue.

The commission “appears to be carelessly rushing this flawed regulatory proposal that sets arbitrary limits on TV energy usage,” Johnson said. He said the group's members have come up with a number of ideas for making their products more efficient, but want to do them voluntarily.

But some flat-panel-TV makers said they would have no trouble hitting the higher efficiency threshold and that TV buyers wouldn't see prices rise. Hundreds of top-selling large-screen and very large-screen digital models already comply with the proposed efficiency standards.

“The average Californian should not see a cost premium,” Bruce Berkoff, chairman of the LCD TV Association, said in a letter to the Energy Commission. “They will, however, benefit from dozens to hundreds of dollars in energy cost savings over their TV's lifetime, thus making the proposed standard extremely cost-effective for the state of California.”

The Energy Commission's move is just the latest step in a long push for energy efficiency in California. Since 1975, the Golden State has led the nation in adopting tough energy standards for household appliances, homes and buildings. As a result, California's per-capita electricity consumption has remained flat for nearly three decades, while the rest of the country's power demand grew 50 percent.

Yet California's energy needs are so vast it still must import about 30 percent of its electricity from out of state. Continued conservation, officials say, is critical to ensure California has enough electricity to keep its economy growing and healthy.

Big-screen TVs have emerged as a potential monkey wrench in the state's energy planning.

Sales of large, flat-screen TVs boomed in recent years, spurred by consumer desire for home theaters, the development of high-definition, digital signals and a ratcheting down of retail prices.

But many of the 40-inch-and-larger sets, which use liquid crystal or plasma technology, consume vast amounts of electricity.

The average plasma screen uses more than three times as much energy as a bulky, old-fashioned cathode-ray-tube TV.

Research shows that television viewing now accounts for about 2 percent of statewide electricity consumption, a percentage that is expected to increase steadily.

Commission analysts estimate that a switch to higher-efficiency sets would eliminate the need to build one large natural-gas-fired electric power plant, saving enough energy to run about 461,000 homes.

The proposed standards would require televisions with 58-inch screens or smaller to comply with a minimum efficiency standard by Jan. 1, 2011, and a more stringent one by Jan. 1, 2013.

Sets with screens larger than 58 inches would initially be exempt from the new standards. But they would be subject to a subsequent rule-making process.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appoints the members of the independent Energy Commission but plays no role in its decisions, “supports the CEC's approach,” spokesman Aaron McLear said.

Some television manufacturers, including Irvine-based Vizio Inc., are on board as well.

“We ... support the standard, and we are in a position to comply with proposed effective dates but would also support earlier implementation,” Kenneth R. Lowe, Vizio's co-founder and vice president, wrote to the commission late last year.

He noted that his company already “has several LCD models in the market today” that meet the more stringent 2013 standard.

Plasma TVs, which use significantly more power, currently would have trouble meeting the standards but could do so “in the next couple of years with expected technological innovations,” Lowe said.

**Odd** · 09-18-09, 09:08 PM

Thought instead of driving around you were supposed to sit home and watch TV?

**MacLean** · 09-18-09, 09:37 PM

It's all bullshit.

Manufacturers are already exceeding the standards, and will continue to do so.

The market works.

**pgg** · 09-18-09, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by maclean

It's all bullshit.

Manufacturers are already exceeding the standards, and will continue to do so.

The market works.

Maybe its because most beer drinking, monday night football watching, voters tend to lean conservative

**TXCharlie** · 09-18-09, 09:41 PM

I'm getting a 50" Panasonic Plasma delivered Sunday - Just in time!!!

Best Buy had it on sale for $999, 36 Months zero % interest - I was all over that after our old TV started loosing horizontal sync last week.

The only trouble with that is, the flimsy little entertainment centers I saw cost more than the Plazma TV, if I want glass doors - For now, I'm just going to put it on top of my old entertainment center until I decide whether I really want to buy another peice of furniture, or just get out the saw and start hacking out shelves of the old one until the TV fits inside.

**Five-0** · 09-18-09, 10:29 PM

I like watching big TVs and I also love pissing off tree hugging dumbasses. It's a win/win!!!

**TXCharlie** · 09-18-09, 10:41 PM

LOL - yeah, I am also happy to report that, inch for inch, a Plasma consumes more power than LCD, LED, DLP, Projection, CRT, or any other big-screen TV I can buy

I hope it doesn't have an Energy Star rating - I forgot to look for that.

**Shoestring** · 09-19-09, 12:35 AM

Um hey I got a flippin idea

People should turn off the TV when they are not watching it, same with lights, computers etc.

Also unplug anything that you do not use, they will still burn a small amount of energy if plugged in even if not used.

I have me a fat ass TV but it only is on when we are watching it, and usually then all the lights are off because its snuggle time with the wife

**Five-0** · 09-19-09, 12:39 AM

To add to Shoestring's post....when you are done with tires BURN THEM!!!!!

**Shoestring** · 09-19-09, 12:47 AM

Originally Posted by Five-0

To add to Shoestring's post....when you are done with tires BURN THEM!!!!!

Damn Straight,

Ever see the pics of the Tire Fire in Watertown WI a year ago,

use the link and click on the pics section

Watertown Tire Fire

**Five-0** · 09-19-09, 12:49 AM

Wow. That fire has a carbon footprint almost as big as a Michelle Obama's shopping trip.

**jmur5074** · 09-19-09, 06:13 AM

Maybe instead of fussing over what TV their residents have in their living rooms, California should focus on being less progressive and liberal, and pull their state out of the economic hole they've put themselves in.