If you are looking to buy a new TV, choosing an LCD might help you save you money on your electricity bill. The reason for this is that LCD televisions use a backlight behind the pixels to produce their image while plasma TVs have a light source for every single pixel on the screen.
Under the majority of viewing conditions, LCDs can use less than half the power of a plasma television. As LCDs move to LED backlighting, their power consumption will be even lower, giving them a further advantage over plasmas.
One thing to keep in mind is that plasma TVs could very well use less power if you normally view darker images like movies. This is because pixels displaying black do not require plasma’s direct lighting, but LCDs continue their same backlight though the light will not come through those black pixels. While this could make plasma an economical choice for a dedicated movie room, this one occasion that plasma comes out ahead is negated as screen resolutions rise.
As an example, a 720P plasma TV would require nearly 1 million individual light sources. However, when comparing televisions at 1080P, the plasma would need over 2 million light sources while the LCD has the single backlight no matter what the resolution. At some point, screen resolutions will likely increase further, making LCDs an even better choice.
While LCD televisions can help you reduce the amount of electricity you use, there is another way to reduce the power consumption of any TV. You should turn down the contrast or backlighting options in your menu. Not only will this cut the power usage, but it will also improve your image with deeper blacks and a less irritating light output.
Image by LGEPR
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Tom Drake is the owner and head writer of Canadian Finance Blog.
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If you put the entertainment centre on powerbar, turning off the powerbar would likely save you far more money as most TV are on standby (along with all the components) constantly drawing power.
I personally agree that turning off the powerbar would save you money rather than leaving the TV on standby. However, it depends on individual watching behaviour, for movie addicts, you can get the maximum experience from Plasma TV as well as being economical by using less power as movie are better viewed in darker images. For those who are not into movies at all then should go for LCD TV. Also it depends on the budget. Overall LCD TVs are the most energy efficient as they use back lighting through liquid crystals to form an image. They also can produce a finer resolution than plasma displays, but they have a disadvantage in terms of brightness, contrast ratio, and viewing angle. If you have a budget to blow and to get one of the best in term of quality, practicality and the most economical tvs out there, then plasma still wins.
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We found a very good way to instantly lower our electric bills : a couple years ago, me and my wife have installed solar panels and a small wind turbines on our house’s roof.
We now we are saving about 45$ per months and we expect the whole system will be refunded in less than 6 years at the present price of 0.08$ per kilo-watts here in Quebec.
I plan on installing more solar panels and maybe one more small wind turbine. Now that I have made my “test setup” and saw that these technologies truly works, I plan on installing alot more of them!
Long lige to renewable and green energies!
Yeah, it’s true that LCD televisions are energy efficient appliances. I was able to cut down the my electricity bills compared to using the CRT and the plasma.
I just bought a 75 inch LED TV. It was heavy for the boys who delivered it to our home.