No TV Left Behind?

January 13, 2009 - Is it time for a mandatory energy efficiency standard to force our new large screen televisions to go on an energy diet?

The California Energy Commission (CEC) thinks so. In last month’s workshop in Sacramento, stakeholders (including all of the industry’s major TV suppliers) participated in a lively discussion regarding the state’s plan to develop a standard that will dictate the maximum on-mode and standby power that these giant screens will be allowed to consume while they entertain us. If they don’t meet the standard, they can’t be sold in California, with the real possibility of other states adopting the same efficiency standard.

The issue of large screen TV energy consumption isn’t new. Ever since studies began appearing a few years ago, showing that the larger sets were energy hogs, efficiency agencies like ENERGY STAR and the CEC began investigating ways to reduce their consumption.

Early last year, ENERGY STAR published their efficiency spec, taking into account the TV’s native vertical resolution and visible screen area. To qualify for the logo, a TV can’t exceed the maximum on-mode power consumption determined by the spec’s formula. For example, a screen with a viewing area > 680 inch2 and < 1045 inch2 can’t use more energy than the result of the formula PMax = 0.240*A + 27. Using that formula, a 42 inch TV (754 inch2) is limited to 208 W consumption. While there was concern voiced by TV manufacturers during stakeholder meetings, by the time the spec became effective on November 1st, there were over 300 models conforming, including both plasma and LCD, and the number of sets wearing the ENERGY STAR logo keeps climbing.

A proposed CEC TV efficiency standard (on-mode power consumption level formulas shown in the table below) by northern California utility company PG&E raises the efficiency bar a bit for manufacturers but uses the same approach as ENERGY STAR. Its immediate target, called Tier 1, while a little tighter than ENERGY STAR, doesn’t take effect until January 1, 2011. The spec doesn’t tighten again until 2013.

Some stakeholders at the December 15th CEC workshop voiced concern that the tier 2 specs were too tight, especially for the very large models, and would result in empty shelves at California electronic retailers and lost jobs for independent home theater retailers and installers (resulting in reduced state tax revenues).

PG&E’s presentation painted a rosier picture. According to test data published by ENERGY STAR, over 300 TV sets available today would meet the proposed CEC 2011 tier 1 spec, with over 100 sets currently meeting tier 2. Additionally, PG&E presented information recently published by TV manufacturers which claimed that new approaches being developed today would dramatically improve the efficiency of future TVs, further supporting PG&E’s proposed tier 2 spec levels.

Where does the CEC go from here? Requests for more information have been made to independent retailers and installers of high end home theater components to get a better understanding of their concerns about limited product availability and resulting lost jobs. But barring any extraordinary new data, I’d expect the CEC to amend the state’s Title 20 Appliance Efficiency Regulations to include their new TV efficiency standard before summer reruns begin.

For more information on the proposed efficiency specifications and stakeholder presentations from the CEC meeting, go to:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/appliances/2008rulemaking/documents/index.html#121508

To find out more about the ENERGY STAR television efficiency specs, go to:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/product_specs/eligibility/tv_vcr_elig.pdf

For more information on ENERGY STAR qualified televisions, go to
http://downloads.energystar.gov/bi/qplist/Televisionqplist.pdf