The Null Device

The SUV of the living room

Surprise of the day: large-screen TVs use more current than the smaller ones. Wal-Mart America's love affair with the jumbo plasma screen has resulted in massive increases in electricity consumption, calling on some to compare the TVs to that other emblem of the divinely-sanctioned and non-negotiable American lifestyle, the SUV. The fact that a lot of people leave the TV on 24 hours a day as a psychological security blanket probably doesn't help.

(Though is anybody really surprised that large TVs use a lot more current? Electricity consumption would, I imagine, be a function of the square of the screen size, meaning that even small increases in size result in large increases in power consumption. Which, also, is probably one of the reasons why small, wimpy-looking laptops have about twice the battery life of the larger, more-impressive-looking ones.)

There are 4 comments on "The SUV of the living room":

Posted by: Scaree
http://
Thu Jun 16 14:20:29 2005

Is that why small wimpy looking youths have twice the brainpower of their more athletic looking peers?

Posted by: acb
http://dev.null.org
Thu Jun 16 15:57:22 2005

Actually, I think you may be on to something there...

Posted by: Graham
http://grudnuk.com/
Fri Jun 17 10:07:45 2005

Actually, I'm wondering how flat-screen monitors compare with CRTs, in terms of power consumption.

Posted by: acb
http://dev.null.org
Fri Jun 17 11:21:34 2005

They consume a lot less, apparently. (Doubly so if you need air conditioning to get rid of the heat a CRT puts out.)

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