Digital Home Thoughts: Plasma TVs: Not the Energy Hogs You Think They Are

I was reading this article on ZDNet today, and came across a common misconception: "...plasma sets are notorious for their high power consumption." This is absolutely untrue. CNET recently compared the power consumption of 54 TV sets, of various types (plasma, LCD, rear-projection, CRT). I averaged out the power consumption across LCDs and Plasma TVs, and found that LCDs consumed 0.29 watts per square inch, whereas Plasma TVs consumed 0.33 watts per square inch. That's barely a 10% difference. The size of the set didn't really matter, with larger panels consuming about the same watts per square inch as smaller ones.

So the old argument that you should buy an LCD tv because it's more efficient than a plasma tv? Baloney. Wanna save some real money? Calibrate your tv. It could cut your electric bill in half.