HDTV Power Consumption

HDTV power consumption compared is a web page that all "green" fans of HDTV watching need to check out:


I'm just such an aficionado, as my What's on HDTV? blog can confirm. I have three HDTVs, one of which is listed in the chart: the Samsung LN52A650, which is a 52" flat-panel LCD set that uses 219.9 watts of electrical power when it's on.

That's 0.19 watt per square inch, a measure of the ratio of power used to screen size.

The Annual Cost column at far right gives the amount of money the TV costs to run over 365 days, assuming it's turned on for 8 hours a day and off for 16, based on the average price of energy in the U.S. during 2007, which was 10.6 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the Energy Information Administration. My Samsung costs $68.81 per year to run, on that basis. (Actually, my cost per kWh is about 50% higher than 10.6 cents, so 8 hours a day, 365 days a year would cost me a lot more.)

I also have a Sony KDL-40XBR2 40" LCD panel. It's not listed, but its big brother in the same model year, the KDL-52XBR2, is. It costs $95.58 a year, roughly half again what my 52" Samsung costs. But the Sony KDL-46XBR4 costs only $79.53; it's smaller (46") and it's two generations newer (XBR4, not XBR2). The 52" Sony KDL-52XBR6, which is two generations newer yet, costs $84.38 per year to watch, a clear improvement over $95.58 for the XBR2.

I also have a plasma flat panel, a smaller and slightly older version (32") of the Hitachi 55HDT52 listed as costing $128.01/yr. Yes, plasmas are inch-for-inch much more costly to run than LCDs. With just a few exceptions, the chart shows they're not remotely "green."