With the cost of energy continuing to rise, power consumption is often a consideration when making a major appliance purchase. Unfortunately, television manufacturers are not going overboard to provide us the data we need to make comparisons of this particular cost item. They do not fail to flash a large variety of numbers and specs at us, but they concentrate on screen size, resolution, pixel density, and those sorts of data that tell us how well they perform in the area of image reproduction. They are not so quick to talk about how much it is all going to cost.
One problem is a lack of a standard method of testing and reporting power consumption data. Even private labs that run tests vary widely on their methods, and comparing results can be misleading. It sounds like a big secret is being concealed here, and it makes the average consumer a bit wary about just how much power his new big screen TV is gobbling up.
The news is not bad, however, when it comes to the newer DLP projection Televisions. A review of the testing data shows them to be fairly inexpensive to operate, especially when compared to Plasma and LCD units of similar size. One way to compare power consumption is to calculate the watts used per inch of screen size (wpi). One recent test showed a 50 inch plasma unit measuring its wpi at 9.02 watts. Dropping to a 43 inch screen produced a mark of 6.12 watts. This is an increase of almost one third more power consumption for a mere 7 additional inches. By comparison, a look at several DLP 50 inch models yielded a wpi of between 3.12-3.86 watts.
Since a 32 inch CRT analog model included in this study was measured at 3.12 watts, a figure identical to the low end of the DLP scale, it is easy to see that the DLP is offering a larger screen, and quite a bit better image resolution with little, if any, increase in power consumption. You can still pretty much watch your DLP 24 hours a day for about the same cost as taking your family to the movie theater, and considerably less than if you also buy popcorn.
November 21st, 2006 by Plasma Man
One Response to “Power Consumption of a DLP Television”
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“One recent test showed a 50 inch plasma unit measuring its wpi at 9.02 watts. Dropping to a 43 inch screen produced a mark of 6.12 watts. This is an increase of almost one third more power consumption for a mere 7 additional inches.”
Your math seems to be a little sloppy here.
Increasing from 6.12 wpi to 9.02 wpi is actually closer to a 50% increase (47.4%), not the 33% one you implied. It’s the decrease that’d be a third.
More than that though, this is a measure not of power consumption, but perhaps power consumption density. Doubling your wpi doesn’t double your wattage, just wattage per inch. To find the actual wattage change, you have to multiply by the size.
The 43″ plasma is 6.12 wpi, in other words, eats up:
43 inches * 6.12 wpi = 263.16 Watts
And the 50″ plasma:
50 inches * 9.02 wpi = 451 Watts
Which is actually a 71.4% increase in wattage for that extra 7 inches. That is, the picture’s even uglier than the way you described it.
Thank God for DLP and OLEDs.