Purchasing a TV today can be a daunting process. TV shopping used to be about finding the model with the best picture that one could afford, but now consumers need to wade through a sea of acronyms and technical jargon to figure out if their next TV should be standard, DTV, or HDTV, and whether they should buy into one of the “new” TV technologies like LCD, DLP, or PDP. With a wide array of technologies and formats on the market, a consumer can now encounter two TVs with the same size and performance that consume radically different amounts of energy over the course of a year. Some of the largest TVs can consume as much energy as a refrigerator. ENERGY STAR labels can help buyers spot relatively efficient models, but it is still challenging for buyers to find the most efficient models.

Utilities in some parts of the country have begun offering programs to encourage retailers to sell more of the most energy efficient models.  In addition, ENERGY STAR announced revisions to its specification in early September 2009, effective in May 2010, that would make it more challenging for new products to qualify.

What do we mean when we say "television"?
Today’s TVs come in a wide range of sizes and technologies, from cathode ray tubes (CRT TVs) to plasma display panel (PDP), liquid crystal display (LCD) and projection TVs. At their core, TVs are merely devices that display audiovisual content and that contain a built-in tuner capable of tuning off-air broadcasts. The presence of this tuner is what separates TVs from monitors. However, the majority of TV-watchers get their signal from external cable or satellite sources anyway, meaning that the internal TV tuner may not be used.  In the not-too-distant future, TVs and monitors are expected to converge into one single product category that might be described as “displays”.

TVs and the technical jargon used to describe them are both becoming increasingly complicated, and it would be impossible for EfficientProducts.org to provide a comprehensive crash course on all of the latest technologies and acronyms. Please see our “Other Useful Info” section on the right if you need more detail. At the most basic level, here is what you should know about the major trends that are sweeping the TV industry:

• Digital Television (DTV) – DTV is the industry’s term for a new standard in TV signals that is already transforming the TV landscape. Rather than representing TV pictures as an analog signal (like radio or standard broadcast TV), DTV transmits TV signals over the air and through wires as a series of digital ones and zeros. Congress required that broadcasters switch over to the digital format in 2009 -- a process that was completed by most broadcasters prior to June 13, 2009.
• High definition television (HDTV) – HDTV is a new resolution format enabled by DTV that allows TVs to display widescreen images in high resolution (up to 1080 vertical lines of resolution or roughly triple the resolution of typical analog TVs). A TV that can display these images is called an HDTV. They have been the holy grail of home theater owners for some years now, but prices on HDTVs are coming down fast enough that even casual TV watchers are now purchasing these high performance TVs.
• New TV technologies –  Cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs achieved significant gains in performance and energy efficiency over a period of more than 60 years, but are now largely obsolete for size and weight reasons.  Flat panel designs have important aesthetic and performance advantages. TVs are now available in liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP), Digital Light Projection (DLP), and other flavors too numerous to mention here. LCDs are the most popular type of television technology in use today.

How many televisions are in use and how much energy do they use?
Five hours – the amount of time that a TV is turned on in the average American home every day[1]. With families spending that much time in front of the tube, and with about 290 million TVs installed in U.S. households today[2], it’s no wonder that TVs are consuming their fair share of the nation’s electricity. In fact, the number of TVs is growing fast enough that there will soon be one TV for every U.S. citizen! With the transition to DTV, many consumers are purchasing newer, larger HDTVs to upgrade their home theaters. Many households will simply move the old TV to a bedroom or den, further increasing the number of TVs in use.

TVs consume about 90 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year in the U.S. or about 23% of household Miscelleneous Electric Loads, which in turn represent 24% of total houshold electricity consumption [2]. TVs use over 90% of this energy when the set is turned on. The remaining amount is used in standby mode when the set has been turned off by the consumer. TV use in the U.S. results in a greater than $10 billion annual electricity bill and releases over 55 million tons of CO₂ from power plants. Unless TV efficiency improves, the rapid growth in TV sales, increased hours of TV viewing, and multiple TVs per household will expand TV energy consumption to about 170 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) by 2014 [2].

But what does this mean to an individual consumer? Behind the TVs in your home is a substantial electricity bill, and inefficient TVs could be costing you extra money. A typical 36-inch CRT television, for example, uses about 300 kWh of electricity every year, costing the consumer about $36; however, more efficient models of the same size and performance are also available that could cut electric bills by over $10 per year. This might not sound like much compared to the price of a TV, but over the lifetime of the product and with multiple TVs in the home, the dollars can add up. Combine these numbers with a modest sampling of other home entertainment equipment that Americans typically own, such as set top boxes and VCRs, and the resulting annual energy consumption approaches 1200 kWh per year or about 10% of the average American household’s electricity bill[4]!

Whatever energy is saved by switching to more efficient electronics ultimately helps the environment by reducing the carbon dioxide emissions and other emissions from power plants. If all TVs were more efficient, it would be the equivalent of removing over 1 million passenger cars from our roads[5][2].

How can I find today's most efficient televisions?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program began labeling energy-efficient TVs in 1998 based on the amount of electricity that they use in standby mode (when the user has turned off the TV, but the set is still plugged into an AC outlet). In ENERGY STAR's current version 3.0 of its TV specification, TVs must meet efficiency criteria for both active (when the TV is on) and standby modes. Most of the savings come from active mode.

Newer versions of the ENERGY STAR specification, versions 4.0 and 5.0, have now been published by ENERGY STAR, and are scheduled to take effect in May 2010 and May 2012 respectively.  These specifications require the smallest televisions to consume less power than they did in version 3.0, and reduce the amount of extra power TVs are allowed to consume as they become larger.  For more information on the latest developments at ENERGY STAR, visit the ENERGY STAR television web site.

A variety of other voluntary reognition levels are under consideration or in active use. The Consortium for Energy Efficiency adopted a Tier 2 specification 15% lower than ENERGY STAR v. 3.0, which is currently being used by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and some other utilities to provide rebates for qualifying models. CEE's Tier 3 specification is 30% lower than ENERGY STAR v. 3.0.  The list of qualifying models for each tier can be found at CEE TV product list.

There are currently no federal standards or mandatory labeling requirements for TV energy efficiency, though both are possible in the future.  The Federal Trade Commission has begun deliberations about how a TV labeling program would work.  The California Energy Commission is engaged in a rulemaking for new televisions that would require televisions sold in the state after 2011 and 2013 to meet steadily more stringent energy efficiency requirements.

A new organization -- TopTen USA -- is also conducting research that will eventually help consumers locate the most energy efficient products available in a number of categories, including televisions.

Until then, here are some tips that will help you locate the most energy efficient models.

• As a general rule, LED-backlit LCD televisions will have lower energy use than most other similarly sized models, though some fluorescent backlit designs can also be quite energy efficient.
• For the largest screen sizes, front and rear projection technologies can often use less energy than flat panel displays like LCD and plasma.  The newest high definition front projectors have reached price points of $1,000 as well, helping to make them cost competitive with flat panel TVs larger than 50 inches.
• CNet conducts its own television energy use testing to supplement the information it provides to customers on the picture quality and features of televisions.  The reviews also provide an indication of whether particular energy use levels are relatively high or low for a given screen size.
• If you are shopping for televisions in a store and are trying to decide between two models, ask the salesperson which one uses less energy.  They may not have that information readily available, but if enough people ask, they will get the message that energy efficiency is an important selling feature.
• Download the ENERGY STAR product list and search for the most efficient models in the particular size range you are considering.
• You can start greening your TV today with the push of a button. Many TVs are shipped in overly bright, retail showroom settings that waste energy. Choose a slightly dimmer setting from your TV's on-screen menu. These settings are often referred to as "Movie" or "Pro" and can also significantly improve picture quality under most viewing conditions. For more information about screen dimming, check out recent research, including a video demonstration of the impacts.

What is the definition of efficiency for televisions?
Most governments around the world have standardized on a definition of television energy efficiency that relates active mode power consumption to screen area.  Most test procedure and efficiency metrics in use around the world compare efficiency on a square inches of screen area per watt (higher is better) or watts per square inch of screen area basis (lower is better) at manufacturers' default screen settings for home use.

ENERGY STAR defines TV efficiency using a watts-per-square inch metric that signifies how many watts of power are consumed by a TV to illuminate a square inch of its screen area. This approach considers that larger TVs consume more power than smaller TVs. The metric normalizes for TV screen size and therefore remains technology neutral, measuring a wide variety of technologies using the same efficiency yardstick. For more information about current efficiency metrics, we recommend visiting the ENERGY STAR program’s TV specification revision page.

The greatest area of remaining controversy in television efficiency metrics is what to do about screen brightness or luminance settings. It is clear that manufacturers prefer to demonstrate televisions in brightly lit retail showroom settings at the highest possible luminance levels to help their models stand out from the competition. But if the home settings used to qualify for ENERGY STAR are too bright, extra energy is consumed.  If the home settings are too dim, a television may qualify for ENERGY STAR as shipped, but use more energy when you get it home and change the settings to look better in your room.

A number of approaches have been proposed to deal with that problem, including:

• Multiply screen luminance by screen area and then divide by power use to get an efficiency metric of candelas/watt (the Chinese government uses this approach)
• Measure all screens at the same luminance value to control for differences in brightness (ENERGY STAR uses a variant of this approach for testing computer monitors)
• Encourage manufacturers to incorporate automatic brightness control (ABC) circuitry into their televisions to ensure that screen brightness varies automatically in response to changes in room lighting
• Require that TVs operating in home mode achieve a certain minimum percentage of the luminance they deliver in retail mode (ENERGY STAR takes this approach in its version 4.0 specification)

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1. U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2004 – 2005 (124th edition), Washington D.C., 2004. p. 716
2. Northest Power and Conservation Council, 2009-2014 Electronics Energy Use and Savings Forecast. 2009.
3. Natural Resources Defense Council… 2005. p. 16
4. Natural Resources Defense Council… 2005. p. i
5. Based on an assumption that the average passenger vehicle emits 13,500 pounds of CO₂ per year. See the U.S. EPA's personal CO₂ calculator.