I've got a quesiton for folks about the impact that their plasma screens have had on the monthly power bill.
I moved into a new home in December, and bought my first plasma at the same time, a Panny TH-50PH9UK. I'm also running a Marantz SR7001 AVR for my sound (5.1 system from OrbAudio). Since moving in my electric bills have been twice what they were at my old place, and the plasma is the only "new" thing we didn't have at the old place. When I called the electric company the rep suggested that the plasma is the culprit.
I don't have any way of knowing how more the electric bill is with the plasma, as I don't know what the bills were before I moved in. So, my question to folks is what impact did adding a plasma HT to your home have on the electric bill? I'm averaging 1000 KWH per month, almost twice what I was averaging at my old place. Thanks for any input.
Your setup (TV + receiver) is probably using an average of about 300 watts, depending a little on how you have it adjusted. If you use it for around 30 hours per week, you would be using less than 40 KWH per month. As usual the electric company rep knows less than nothing.
Elemental1 is probably right: only electric heating or cooling could explain that much energy use.
I use my plasma extensively, all day on the weekends, 6 - 7 a night weekdays. Power bill went up maybe a few dollars a month. Hard to tell because I also run my receiver witth TV which I didn't do before so that adds more electricity.
Maybe a "sticky" should be made of this never-ending urban myth of excess power consumption being one of the banes of HDTV - regardless of technology used. This will be the 5th time I've responded to one of these threads in the past 2 months, so here goes: Nothing. Nada. Rien. Zip. Sweet F++K All.
I've been through several hydro billing periods and there HAS BEEN NO APPRECIABLE DIFFERENCE IN MY BILL!! What HAS INCREASED is my TV watching. Big time.
Who keeps propagating this myth? Malcontented CRT luddites?
Plasma TVs do not use that much power. People react to the power consumption spec on the spec sheet or the back, but that is the MAXIMUM power consumption of the plasma at peak brightness. The power consumption varies dynamically with the brightness of screen with peak power for all white scenes. But since most of us have the brightness level set to somewhere around half, the TV is not going to hit the peak power consumption on the label. For example, my Panasonic TH-42PH7UY varies between 90 and around 220-230 Watts in power, but averages around 140 Watts (measured several times over a 4 hour period). The maximum power on the spec sheet for my model is 357 Watts.
In normal use, the power consumption of the plasma runs somewhere around 40 to 50% of the maximum power on the spec sheet. The TH-50PH9UK has a max spec power of 460 Watts, so you are probably running around ~ 190 Watts when it is on. Even if you left on 8 hours a day, that is 1.5 kWH a day or 45 kWH a month. Switching four 75 Watt incandescent bulbs with four CFLs will make up the difference and likely will more than way make up the difference between the TH-50PDH9UK and whatever TV you had before.
The myth of high power consumption for plasmas goes back to the early generation models that were indeed major power hogs and generated a lot of heat. Some 3 or 4 generations back, Panasonic and Pioneer made major strides in reducing the power consumption of plasmas so they are no longer the hogs they once were.
My Motorola HD-DVR consumes more power over the course of a month than my Panasonic 42" plasma. The DVR is always on, even when it is "off", running around 42 Watts when it is off (although I do need to measure this for my newer Verizon Fios Motorola 6412 DVR). That works out to around 1 kWH a day.
I agree with the other posts. You are in a new place with a different heating & cooling system. Do you have gas heat or a heat pump? Electric or gas water heater? More square footage or less efficient home? Did you move your refrigerator or use the one that came with the house? If the new place came with an older fridge, that could be one source of increased power consumption. Refrigerators have made major strides over the past 10 to 20 years in reducing power consumption and improving efficiency to the point where it may be worthwhile replacing that 20 year fridge in the basement with a new basic unit. Replacing burned out incandescent bulbs with CFLs is the easiest way and has the fastest return in reducing your lighting costs.
There is a very handy device called the Kill-A-Watt which measures power consumption of any plug-in device. Very useful to measure the power consumption of your fridge, DVR, TV, receiver, computer, the countless wall warts that we accumulate like barnacles these days. A google search for "Kill-A-Watt" will turn up a bunch of on-line dealers.
Afiggatt, I have done extensive Kill-A-Watt tests and my HP 42" draws an average of 160, and my Dish Dvr 49-52 watts, and like your Dvr it is on all the time no matter if it is turned on or off (stand-by).
I actually think my electric bill went down from what my little 24 in CRT sony was using. I would agree with elemental its the heating cooling in the new place. what about applliances are they electric instead of gas? where the old ones in the old place gas and now perhaps you have electric?
What else would he say? "we just doubled our rates so we could ream you a new one"?
Really there are so many factors - sqft of the building, type of heating/cooling, insulation, new power company..............................................
Thanks everyone for confirming that the plasma isn't the culprit.
Without belaboring the discussion (and by stating up front that I figured I'd get flamed a bit), my new place is 100 sf larger than my old (1,600 v. 1,500), and the move was to the next town. I'm in New England, and the heat is gas, so there's no heat issue involved. I'll now look elsewhere to figure out what gives.
I think I will let the electric company know that I don't appreciate their customer service misinformation, and I'll check out whether NStar has any ownership interests in LCD companies.
Nah, folks are just joshing with ya.......and flaming the power company guy for BS'ing.
Appliances, what about water heater (I assume gas), washer, dryer, etc. You say the heat is gas..........but what type? Forced air? Blower may be far less efficient, less insulation = it's running more often.......
Just pointing out there are a myraid of things that can add up. The power company may have information about the average cost/month for homes in your area - it may be more than your old neighborhood (higher rates etc)
Thanks Mark, The refridgerator is actually a newer model and replaces an older model at the last house, but I'll check out it's energy usage just to be sure.
Are you leaving more lights on at this house outside? Did you have a baby (which increases laundry, lights for late night feedings, makes you read your bill wrong because you're so damn tired
here is my reply to a similar question in another thread, the first part is meant as humor
but the rest IS fact.
Originally Posted by Princeismyname
Do plasmas run that hot? I hear they do. I hope its not going to burn my face sitting in front of it is it lol.
Try placing an unpopped bag of popcorn directly in front of a plasma, in 5 min you have hot popcorn. The higher end units come with a grill attachment so you can use the heat from the screen to cook while you're watching your favorite show
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marky_Mark896 /forum/post/0
He forgot to mention he went from an 800sqft apt to a 3500 sqft house
And moved from North Carolina to Northern Michigan
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marky_Mark896 /forum/post/0
Maybe the neighbors have an illegal tap on your power line (those bastards)
.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marky_Mark896 /forum/post/0
Are you leaving more lights on at this house outside? Did you have a baby (which increases laundry, lights for late night feedings, makes you read your bill wrong because you're so damn tired
The amount of heat an electrical device emits is in direct proportion to the amount of power the device is using. Plasma TV's emit alot of heat hence, they use a lot of power.
That said, it's impossible to determine what's causing the increase in your power bill since you have no baseline at your current address to measure from. I doubt it's the Plasma though.
Wrong and wrong. That's pure myth. My plasma TV runs much cooler than my old CRT, and the power consumption numbers don't lie.
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