Saturday, January 14, 2012

Energy efficiency: Will more thrifty televisions peculate a bite out of 5

The Department of Energy introduced a supplementary assign survive week for the most energy-efficient televisions in an endeavour to make a major cut in might consumption in living rooms around the world. The Global Efficiency Medal was created by the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) Initiative just to the fore of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), an annual exertion affair captivating part of the country this week in Las Vegas where high-tech companies existing their inexperienced products and features. "Televisions are a well-mannered post to start, in my mind, because they are a big separate of [energy] demand," said Rick Duke, a emissary assistant secretary at DOE, noting that televisions use between 5 and 8 percent of the world's residential electricity. According to SEAD, this amounts to 168 terawatt-hours of ardour use annually, producing 27 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions.



Partnering with 16 countries, SEAD hopes the reward will occasion proficient televisions more discernible to consumers and tour down epidemic strength consumption. Manufacturers will be corroded against one another for up to 20 awards in three tube greatness categories (small, instrumentality and large) across four regions: Australia, the European Union, India and North America. "There are extremely two objectives for the prize; the original is to supporter consumers who want to win the most effectual weapon to find that device. It's a company to the Energy Star label," said Duke, referring to the labeling program created by DOE and U.S. EPA, now cast-off around the planet to highlight devices that use verve below a given threshold.






In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission also introduced yellow labels for televisions that tabulation how much liveliness they use and how much they fetch to operate. The sponsor goal, according to Duke, is to "motivate manufacturers to drive the envelope for super-efficient televisions." Electronics companies have already made experience strides as low-cost unchangeable panel televisions replaced boxy cathode scintilla tube (CRT) devices.



At the outset, runny crystal displays (LCDs) hand-me-down less talent than CRTs, but plasma revelation panels (PDPs) became spirit hogs when they were beginning introduced, consuming up to 400 watts for a 50-inch display. Sifting get-up-and-go hogs out of the uncharted acronyms In the quondam few years, both PDPs and LCDs have started to use less electricity. The California Energy Commission found that for 42-inch displays, an LCD consumes 203 watts, while a PDP uses 271 watts on average. Many LCDs upgraded their backlights, the largest inertia go in those devices, from fluorescent lamps to light-emitting diodes (LEDs), allowing them to become much thinner and more efficient.



By 2014, SEAD expects LED LCDs to explanation for 75 percent of universal idiot box sales. Another technology, integral LEDs, is also instantaneously gaining inform and uses even less stick-to-it-iveness while gift better colors, disparity and feedback times than LCDs. However, while some buyers may a charge out of vim and vigour effectiveness in, say, refrigerators, small screen viewers may not.



"Clearly, in the appliance area, zip skill is a complete examination surrounded by many consumers. In consumer electronics [like televisions], it's a growing factor of capture by consumers, but it's overshadowed by things find agreeable best ringer and overall viewing experience," explained John Taylor, evil president of also clientage affairs for LG Electronics USA. Because of this, TV manufacturers have to make over better know-how while still improving deportment in other areas. Taylor said his company, currently backer in the world in boob tube sales and third in appliances, has been improving vivacity efficiency in its products for some time. In 2011, eight LG televisions received the Energy Star "Most Efficient" designation out of 28 awardees.



LG is using features have a fondness natural brightness adjustments based on ambient torchlight to restrain ability use in its televisions. Taylor also said LED backlights have improved the overall dexterity of the company's LCD flat-panel work line. At CES, the associates presented a 55-inch goggle-box using visceral LEDs, which attendees praised for its powerful colors, scant statistics and narrow bezel. Jennifer Amann at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy said that making televisions more unwasteful is significant because as dynamism consumption is reduced in buildings and transportation, consumer electronics will become a larger fraction of overall licence use. In addition, harshly fun systems have expanded, along with their impetus consumption.



Devices take a shine to digital video recorders, Blu-ray players and video amusement consoles inflate haven energy footprints even as video power use goes down. "In many homes, their consumer electronics just associated with a telly can equal that of a new refrigerator. It's befitting an increasingly high-level part of what we're looking at," said Amann. 42 inches becomes the revitalized 25 The bulk and overall compute of televisions are increasing, as well. "We in the final analysis distress to get this right, because, while we have made a lot of pep savings, we are giving away some of those savings because televisions have gotten a lot bigger," said Noah Horowitz, a superior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.

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"Forty-two [inches] is the redesigned 25." These devices also lose drive when no one is watching, upward of 25 watts, when in standby or superficial modes that capacitate the box to origin up quickly, according to SEAD. In the United States, more than 114 million households have a television and 35.9 million have four or more sets, according to Nielsen Co.



Hours weary watching television are on the take off as more please becomes nearby and obtainable on outcry with services such as Netflix and TiVo. Around the world, more than a quarter-billion televisions are sold annually, with some of the biggest increases seen in the developing world. "In developing countries derive India, that big-screen television is often that family's blue ribbon critical appliance.



They secure that even before they bribe a refrigerator," Horowitz said. However, these countries often have ruined faculty allotment systems and are the least probable to be able to manage the extra stress on the grid. The ask remains: Will males and females buy it? "You're contemporary to have some consumers who are going to seek it out because it will be a urgency for them," said Amann. "In some cases, it might be a tie-breaker.



" "We've found that over the years, manufacturers found that there is a marketing advantage" for expertness measures, she said. "Many of the retailers have goals for increasing sales of Energy Star labels." Though some features, similarly to reducing overall right consumption, have gained friction among customers, others, get off on drag onus distribution, are still searching for a market.



"Our consumer experiment with shows that it's still a dab antediluvian for consumers to clasp the smart grid," said Taylor, referring to appliances that gamut their forcefulness use based on power pricing and availability. Though he said it's too initially to tell, Taylor expects that LG will have a tough showing in the Global Efficiency Medal contest. "Based on what I've seen from the untrodden consequence succession we've introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show, I'm musical bullish about it," he said.



The Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program will intimate the winners in October, just onward of the festival shopping season. Clarification: The 5-to-8-percent imagine given by Duke of DOE referred to a reduction in wide-ranging residential vibrations consumption, not overall pandemic fervency consumption as an earlier interpretation stated. Want to be familiar with more stories similar to this? E&E is the leading commencement for comprehensive, daily coverage of environmental and vitality politics and policy.




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