Report: You suck more than your dad

A new study in the UK entitled "The Ampere Strikes Back" (guffaw) has found us trending towards a gluttonous, energy sucking people. Ok, an even more gluttonous, energy sucking people. If we can oversimplify the matter: our desire to use energy undermines our attempts to conserve it. Fortunately, there's no need to feel guilty; put down the remote and point your Cheeto-stained finger in the direction of "the industry." See, those modern flat panels we're forced to buy consume about 3 times the energy required to power granny's old CRT tube. And those fancy DAB radios? Well, they consume more then 4x the power required to drive the ol' Light Programme back in the day. Fortunately, mobile phone chargers have largely ceased their vampiric ways drawing less than 1 watt on average compared to the 3 to 5 watts seen just a few years ago. We'll take their advice to unplug all our gear once the diesel-powered Engadget home robot is up and working again.

[Nimajus Bagdonavicius @ Jul 4th 2007 11:36AM]

WTF? Few years ago I've read everywhere that LCD monitors used less power than CRTs. I think even here on engadget there was an article about how people should tell their boss these power conservation facts in order to get their hands on some thin LCD goodness. And now you're telling me they use more power?

[Trojan @ Jul 4th 2007 11:46AM]

If you replaced a 20" CRT with a 19" LCD, or a 27" CRT TV with a 27" LCD, that would probably be true. But what people are doing in the TV space is replacing 27-32" CRT TV's with big, 37-60" LCD or Plasma TV's, which end up consuming more power than their much smaller CRT was. Plasma's use more power than LCD's, and the article talks about average power consumption for flatscreen Digital TV's, not just LCDs, which is probably why this statistic seems so counter intuitive.

I also question when the report says that they're consuming three times as much power as the 100watt average for the older CRT TV.

[Josh Warner @ Jul 4th 2007 12:35PM]

They do. This is the current state of affairs and will become even more emphasized in a year or so when the CCFL backlights are phased out in favor of LED backlighting, but even right now LCDs are more power efficient than CRTs were.

Given that, the original post doesn't specify LCD... my guess is their quote is based off of plasma screens. These are fantastically power hungry, far more so than CRTs, and even a fraction of the 'flat panel' market consisting of plasma tech skews the average power consumption of "Flat panel TVs" which include both LCD and plasma drastically upward. They could be right - on average - but the specific subset of LCD monitors/TVs definitely saves energy over their CRT counterparts.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jul 4th 2007 2:49PM]

Competely agree...maybe certain sized plasmas vs. traditional CRTs might draw more power, but generally, equivalent sized LCDs draw much less power than CRTs. Everytime I turn on my 36" CRT TV,(gotta love the old-school HD Sonys!) the lights flicker in my home from the massive power draw.

[Big @ Jul 4th 2007 11:25AM]

during summer, the city here (NYC) asks people to be more conservative of power due to the stress we place on the city's grid.

I simply can't imagine how much power I'm using, running an AC, an XBOX 360 and a High Definition television.

Ever since I got my Xbox360, my Con Edison bill has gone up about $4 a month. I haven't figured out how much the HDTV is adding.

[Ebzy @ Jul 4th 2007 4:29PM]

With all due respect I thought the title was praising my prowess...

hehehe

[Hyfc3s @ Jul 4th 2007 12:43PM]

MY FATHER WAS A GREAT MAN!

[Fubar @ Jul 4th 2007 1:13PM]

Well, MY father was Nosferatu.

(C'mon, it's the best Engadget photo in weeks--SOMEbody had to mention it.)

[James @ Jul 4th 2007 11:32AM]

All these woes will go away when I get my free energy machine:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/04/steorns-orbo-free-energy-machine-demonstrated-tomorrow/

[Phlegmbert @ Jul 4th 2007 11:37AM]

That's probably only going to be true if it blows up and kills you.

[Bill E @ Jul 4th 2007 8:56PM]

Before you mindlessly try to 'edumicate' people, try knowing what your talking about. --quote "See, those modern flat panels we're forced to buy consume about 3 times the energy required to power granny's old CRT tube." - -

3 times as much energy? On what planet? Listen up my dippy, wherever you got, were told, or heard that LCD panels draw more power than CRT's, fogetaboutit.

Most LCD panels draw at most maybe 60-100 watts of power. Most CRT sets draw on average, 150-300 watts. In addition to this information, also let it be know, those are not the only factors to take into consideration. Most LCD panels power supplies demand only usually, 1.5 to around 3.5 amps on average - - not so with CRT's. Most CRT's demand around 5-10 amp.

In short, LCD panels, aside from looking 1000 times better, and taking up less real estate, don't ask a whole lot in return when it comes to power. Remember this little quote of mine.......

LCD good CRT bad

[Mohan @ Aug 24th 2007 8:55PM]

i do not agree my 32" sony crt uses 90w compared to a 32"lcd which uses about 100 to 160w.It's just that simple.check out the specs at the back.

[Paul @ Jul 4th 2007 11:43AM]

Ok, dont minus me right off the bat, this link is actually relevent

This is from viewsonic (makes LCD's and CRT's) and they claim that LCD's use 1/3 the amount of power used in a CRT

http://www.viewsonic.com/monitoruniversity/lcd.htm

[backwar @ Jul 4th 2007 11:44AM]

Yeah it seems really suspect to me as well. I have a 52" RPLCD which uses a little less Juice than my 27" CRT did. My 22" LCD monitor for a fact draws less than the 19" CRT it was replacing. It seems a little screwy to me.

[thanol @ Jul 5th 2007 9:52AM]

I think the post is referring to massive flat panel (which are probably 3x larger than those old CRTs) TVs not computer monitors.

[alpha geek @ Jul 4th 2007 12:06PM]

Wow engadget sucks. I want news from a professional source not someone telling me i suck energy. And hey, this isn't new news anyway. Im already aware that we use more energy than ever before.

[EatingPie @ Jul 4th 2007 12:15PM]

How much of it is the AMOUNT of devices we have, as opposed to the types of devices.

As a kid, my family had a TV... and later, a Cable Box and VCR.

As an adult, MY family has a TV (73'' CRT), 5.1 Surround Amp 100 watts per channel, 4 Speakers with Powered Subs, a 300 watt 15'' Sub, 2 power Conditioners, a Line Doubler, DVD Player, 2 Hard Drives, 2 D-VHS Decks, a Cable Box, a Component Video Switcher, a Digital Audio Switcher, A PS3, an XBox, an XBox 360 + HD-DVD, 2 Hard Drives, and a MacBook Pro.

Bring on the Wind Power, and stop bitching about the birds!

-Pie

[Matt P @ Jul 4th 2007 1:17PM]

I still use a CRT for my hidef and PC monitor. I am an avid gamer. All I recommend is taking your power strips and unplugging them when you're done with your devices. It's not disputed that standby takes a crap-ton of power, all it takes is a flick of a switch. Oh, and compost :-).

[steve @ Jul 4th 2007 1:29PM]

Should products carry power consumption labeling? And why do so many gadget "glow" when not in use?

[steve @ Jul 4th 2007 1:32PM]

Left out this link:
http://www.last100.com/2007/07/04/digital-life-is-a-power-hog/

[max kingsbury @ Jul 4th 2007 1:49PM]

the "T" in "CRT" stands for tube. Thus "CRT tube" makes about as much sense as "ATM machine" or "SAT test".

[EatingPie @ Jul 4th 2007 2:18PM]

Except that it's hardly ever referred to as "CRT Tube." It's almost always "CRT TV" or "CRT Monitor" and thus the correct usage.

-Pie

PS You missed "GUI Interface" which I heard a guy use so many times at a job I interviewed for, I couldn't get out the door fast enough.

[Brent Gaskey @ Jul 4th 2007 3:09PM]

well... Here in the Northwest were all hydroelectric and wind power. When you boys on the east coast and in Europe catch up to us, then I'll worry about how much power I'm using...

[Chuckles McGee @ Jul 4th 2007 2:53PM]

Many products do carry power consumption labeling- many appliances list the estimated energy cost of running the product for a year as compared to similiar models on the market to show you how the model compares to others available. And while a lot of gadgets do glow while in use, many products are energy star labeled, so they only draw a few watts when in standby.

[SteveMB @ Jul 4th 2007 3:41PM]

I still own a CRT. 16" of viewable radiation.

[Archietype @ Jul 4th 2007 4:36PM]

Odd, I remember reading a very similar article on the BBC news website a few months ago, except they didn't really cite their sources at the time and I thought it sounded a bit odd that they weren't mentioning that it wasn't based on a like for like comparison on size when it came to LCD TVs.

[ethana2 @ Jul 4th 2007 5:22PM]

Yeah, stick to one machine that does everything. It's hard with all the artificial pricing on consoles and stuff, but- if you just have one pc and one lcd screen, that's not a lot of devices to worry about. And if it has cool 'n quiet or speed step, you're even better off.

TV's, game consoles, stereo systems, little alarm clocks on 1µ process... blecch.
Pc's now are on what, 90nm? 65? 45? And it get better every year.

[Boyo @ Jul 4th 2007 5:46PM]

Buying bottled water is taking up more energy than all the electronics in my house, so i just don't buy it and tell others not to and then i feel okay that i have an HDTV,S3 Tivo w/ eSata drive,Xbox360,two laptops, 4 cell phones, routers,snap servers, switches, stereos, ipods, Ac, sonic toothbrush, and a Roomba Scooba.

[John B @ Jul 5th 2007 9:21AM]

OK I broke down and bought one of those Watt-Meters
My 30 inch Samsung widescreen HDTV (CRT) used 124-128 watts.
My 46 Inch Samsung LN-T4665F (yes it is amazing) has 3 power savings levels. At the lowest it uses 100-108 watts. At "Normal" or no power savings it peaks in excess of 220 watts.