LED 'green' TVs make little financial sense

Interesting piece over on www.oled-info.com about how much money you will save with a ‘green’ TV. It has picked up on research from an Israeli newspaper that shows if you buy Samsung 40inch green LED TV it will take over 166 years to offset the difference in price over a conventional LCD screen.

The newspaper has made the calculation, assuming that you watch 4 hours of TV a day. It has worked out that Samsung’s 40inch LED TV consumes almost half the amount of electricity when compared to normal 40inch LCD TVs (95Kw/h vs 175 Kw/h). This works out a little over a dollar a month in terms of electricity savings. But the cost of the set is more than double. Would be interesting if these results are replicated in the UK but they probably are quite similar.

All TV makers are now offering green or eco TVs. Usually they still sell their normal TV, and the new green model is offered at a premium. Some use LED technology to reduce power consumption, and some use ideas like an optical sensor that knows if you leave the room and shuts down the screen, or an ‘eco-mode’ button that reduces brightness by 20%. But it seems that while they might save energy, they make little financial sense right now.

Via Oled Info