Flat screens are energy hungry

Plasma televisions are sending home power bills sky high as more people install bigger and more energy-intensive screens.

Electric hot-water systems remain the No.1 energy guzzler in the home but plasma TVs are fast overtaking refrigerators and freezers as a greenhouse gas culprit, with poorly performing sets adding as much as $100 to electricity bills, energy experts say.

Plasma screens can use up to four times the energy consumed by a standard TV, as well as using more standby power, according to Energy Australia's efficiency expert, Paul Myers.

"Unfortunately, unlike whitegoods, we don't have energy rating labels for televisions, so there is no simple way to compare the running costs of different makes and models," he said.

"In general, however, the bigger the screen, the higher the electricity use."

Over the past five years, there have been significant energy efficiency gains made in the manufacture of whitegoods. Federal Government-mandated energy ratings have also made it easier for consumers to choose the most energy-efficient appliance.

But for many families the electricity savings they have made could be wiped out if a large plasma or LCD TV is installed in the home.

"With TVs we have had quite a dramatic shift to bigger sets, so that drives energy use higher," Mr Myers said.

"But at the moment the consumer has no way of knowing which model if more energy efficient … there is a case for star rating plasma TVs."

Even where there are energy ratings, some appliances are being imported into Australia with misleading labels, according to an ABC Four Corners program. Some air-conditioners were claiming ratings well above their real performance, the program revealed.

The environmental group ACF has called on the Federal Government to implement tougher controls of the accreditation process, to commission an independent audit, to strengthen the testing of appliances and to extend the scheme to cover TVs, ovens, hobs and other appliances.

The ACF Green Home campaigner Clare Donovan said a 68-centimetre cathode TV consumed 98 watts of energy costing, on average, 1.18 cents an hour. That compared with 214 watts and 2.6 cents an hour for a 100-centimetre LCD TV, and 350 watts at 4.2 cents an hour, on average, for a 106-centimetre plasma screen.

"That is why you need to extend the rating system to include TVs," Ms Donovan said.

A spokeswoman for the federal Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said consultations on TV labelling would begin this year with the aim of introducing them in 2010.

A voluntary labelling scheme based on the regulatory proposal could start in 2009, she added.

Hobs and stoves were also under consideration and the Government was committed to examining the possibilities of regulating those appliances in the future.
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