Comments on: Propping Up the Las Vegas Home Electronics Market

By: MJ

MJ — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:35:11 +0000

Any way except price to ration energy use. California slouches further toward socialism.

By: tomw

tomw — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:29:57 +0000

Just wait! They will soon have a built-in circuit to monitor your usage of power. If you watch the incorrect shows, your power utilization might be curtaile. They already tried to get remote-control thermostats to “correct” you use of power in heating and cooling your home. Why not do the same for your viewing habits?
I vote for an export tax on any and all electricity sold across the state line into California. Ten percent because of exported pollution costs. They have exported their pollution, so why not pay for its mitigation?
Thereby penalizing those who thought them self so pure and enviro-friendly. Smug bastids get it in their wallet, no?
tom

By: aub

aub — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:26:03 +0000

Sean,
If I weren’t libertarian, I’d lobby quite a bit to shut out 3/4 of my competition. Then I could make more margin.

Though I’m not sure if the lower power TVs are lower margin or not – low power could be a nice selling feature in high price California.

By: Douglas2

Douglas2 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:01:55 +0000

Cnet has an article with a table: “The chart: 139 HDTVs’ power consumption compared”. In summary, the bigger the TV the more power it takes, and Plasma on average takes more than 1.5x the power of DLP or LCD. They did not summarize where good-old CRT falls in this picture.

Of course if they were really interested in reducing global carbon output, the restriction/ban/tax would be on the TV’s with the shortest life-expectancy, (MTBF) because all of them cause far more carbon output in acquisition of raw materials, manufacture, and transport, than will ever be caused by their electricity consumption during their service life. California does have a looming problem with electrical capacity of its grid and generation, however. They can use “green” as an excuse, but they are really floundering for ways to keep the lights on.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:26:56 +0000

Aub, you ask who makes the 1/4 of the TV’s that pass. Its probably the same group that makes the 3/4 of the TV’s that don’t pass, the ones that do are probably smaller, lower margin models. How much lobbying would you do for less profit per unit sold?

What I’m curious about is how will they measure the “mileage”. It is when the TV’s on or when the TV’s are off (some consume a lot of power in standby mode so they can turn on instantly, my DLP set give me the option of selecting instant on or energy saver). Will size be a factored into the standard? Will the Air Resourced Board set up border checkpoints like the CA Dept of Agriculture to confiscate non-approved TV’s the way they confiscate fruit and vegetables?

By: aub

aub — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:58:04 +0000

Makes you wonder who makes the 1/4 of TVs that meet the standard and whether they lobbied to get the bill passed.

By: rob sama

rob sama — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:52:38 +0000

Heard this on the radio yesterday. Get your bright TVs while you can…