from Ivy in Baraboo, WI:
#149
Can you tell me which uses less electricity: a converter for my 28-inch, cathode-ray tube TV or a new, flat-screen TV that's digital-ready?
An ENERGY STAR converter on your old TV would probably be more energy efficient.
Size is the most important factor when it comes to the energy demands of flat-screen TVs. If you do decide to get a new TV, look for the ENERGY STAR label for energy savings. Typically, you'll use less energy adding a converter to a cathode-ray tube TV than you will by using a flat-screen, high-definition, digital TV (HDTV) of the same size as the cathode-ray tube TV.
Here's why: You can purchase an ENERGY STAR qualified converter that operates on less than 8 watts and uses only about 1 watt in sleep mode. If you watch four hours of TV per day, use of this converter will cost you about $4 dollars annually. But if you swapped a TV smaller than 40 inches, as yours is, to an HDTV of the same size, the new set would cost you, annually, at least $15 more than the current cost of operating your old TV. If you upgraded to a bigger HDTV, the operating cost would go up substantially with size.
Published Sunday, April 19, 2009