As prices of plasma TV’s continue to keep coming down and as more and more people are continuing to buy them, there is a growing concern about their impact on power consumption.
Take for instance Dell’s W4200 42-inch HD Plasma TV. Dell has slashed the prices of some of its plasma TV offerings, including this one. This particular baby eats up about 450 watts of power, and that’s quite a lot. I shudder to imagine what the power consumption rates of the newer, larger-screen plasma TV’s are. Determining such rates is sometimes inconvenient because some of these sets are evaluated when they’re in “standby” mode, or when they’re practically turned off.
If you’re one of those people who spend a large part of their day being couch potatoes and you do your viewing on a large-screen plasma TV, be prepared to fork over more money to pay for your higher electric bill. Maybe some people don’t really care about the added expenses caused by higher energy consumption and the possible environmental side effects, but many other people certainly do.
That’s why concerned parties are suggesting that energy efficiency standards and ratings for plasma TV’s and other digital television sets be revised and modernized to suit today’s needs — such as their evaluation in “active” or “operational” mode. Others are calling on manufacturers to develop technology that will lead to the creation of more environment-friendly, energy-efficient digital display systems to minimize the drain on energy resources. Let’s hope this doesn’t become another impasse between technology and energy conservation.
