As TVs Grow, So Do Electric Bills

[Chauga]

Not long ago, Andrew Fanara was shopping with his wife for a new big-screen television. Everything was going fine, until the sales clerk discovered Fanara was an energy watchdog for the federal government. Pulling Fanara aside, the clerk confessed: His own new 61-inch TV gulped electricity the way a big SUV guzzles gasoline.

"The month after he got it, he got a call from his landlord, who noticed a big jump in the utility bill," recalls Fanara, team leader of the Energy Star program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "It was the kid's big-screen television."

Revelations about energy-munching appliances aren't uncommon in Fanara's job. But lately, he's hearing more about big-screen TVs — and that's worrisome. With sales expected to skyrocket — and with only outmoded testing and efficiency standards available to alert people about energy consumption — digital big-screen TVs are poised to generate big hikes in home energy use and pollution, unless manufacturers act swiftly to adopt more efficient technologies.

That's one reason EPA officials are scheduled later this month to meet with officials of the California Energy Commission, utility company Pacific Gas & Electric, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental group. Their goal is to discuss best ways to measure TV energy use — and ways to get manufacturers to adopt energy-saving technologies faster.


http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/CSM/story?id=852829&page=1