Does a plasma/lcd TV use more electricity than a rear projection?

Question

I just bought a rear projection TV because the one I had died. The sales person said a plasma/lcd TV uses more electricity. He said that after 5 years I could buy a 40 inch TV for the price I spent on electricity to run the plasma/lcd. This added up to around $1000 dollars over the 5 years. Is this true about using that much more electricity?

Thanks

Answer 1

Plasma and LCD TV's do use more power, probably about 1.5-2X as much, so instead of 150Watts, a 50" flat panel TV will draw 250-300Watts. This is the same as a 100Watt lightbulb. Your salesman was smoking something, or more likely getting a much better commission on the rear projection set.

Let's do the math.

Assume TV is on for 24-7, so 8000 hours/year * 5 years = 40,000 hours. 100W difference is the same as 0.1KW so 40,000*0.1 kw = 4000 kW-h

Power where I live is 7cents/kw-h so 4000*0.07 = $280

In reality, your actual use might be closer to 8 hours / day, so then your cost to operate would be 1/3 or about $100 over 5 years!

I think your salesman was not so smart. Rear projection TV's prduce a far inferior image than do either PDP or LCD TV's. Maybe you can return it for misrepresentation?

Astrobuf

Answer 2

Plasma flat-screen TVs use the most electricity of all flat screen technologies. They shouldn't be lumped with LCD as if the power consumption of the two are the same.  It isn't.

Between LCD and Rear Projection TVs, **if** you figure in the screen size, a Projection TV uses the least power per square inch of screen.  If you don't figure in screen size, some LCD models are more efficient than projection, some are not - you have to check model by model (plus there's the brightness factor which makes it even more difficult to compare; many direct-view LCDs can display more brightness per watt than projection technology).

If you are considering only power consumed per square inch of display size, and not brightness, the CNET article referenced below says... "If power efficiency is all you're after, the clear choice is rear-projection technology."

I have a link below to a great chart that compares the power consumption of 104 HDTV models, showing a comparison with and without taking the screen size into consideration.

The salesman did overstate the savings.  Let's say you're comparing a plasma TV to one of the other two technologies.  From looking at the chart, it looks like you'll save an average of roughly $50 per year, X 5 years = $250 (can you buy a 40" TV for $250?).

Answer 3

nooooooooooooooooooooooo. lcds use much less. think of the size difference. though i still perfer rear projection over lcd.