Thursday, November 4, 2010

Yellow Energy Labels for TVs

Starting in 2011 the FTC will require the yellow Energy Guide labels on new TV sets.
These are the same labels you now find in new dish washers, fridges, ...

The new Energy Guide label for TVs




I think this is a great development and will make it much easier for people who want to buy a low energy use and low carbon emissions TV to do so.

We recently went through the TV buying experience and found it to be very hard to get good data on how much power a given TV uses.  TV power consumption varies over a huge range and its large enough to have a significant effect on household power use.  I found the Energy Star label program for TVs to be very unhelpful -- I'd go so far as to say its misleading.  In contrast to the Energy Star labels, these Energy Guide  yellow labels give actual power consumption and should be very helpful.

If you are looking for a new TV, be sure to take energy use into account -- by looking carefully you can find a TV that performs very well and that uses substantially less power.

I'd like to see these Energy Guide labels on anything that uses more than a trivial amount of electricity -- I think that it would make it much easier for people to take energy use into account when buying.
A good next step would be to put them on those 24/7 power sucking TIVO  type units.

Gary
 
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