New Plasma TV Power Regulation Proposed For Australian Market

Australian government is proposing a new standard to regulate the non-energy efficient CE (Consumer Electronics) products, particularly targets on the big screen Plasma or LCD TV. A typical 42-inches plasma TV in the market could consume more than 300W and just imagine with the popularity of these entertainment systems available in every household, the aggregated power dissipation could pose a significant impact to the society. Unless there is a new revolution that can replace existing technology, some even predict that these types of power hungered CE products will extinct by year 2011.

Not doubt, this is one of the good actions to tackle global warming issue around the world. However, there are comments that the proposal is unrealistic since most of the current Plasma or LCD TVs in the market are unable to meet the stringent power management requirement. In short, current technology is far behind as compared to the requirement that have been proposed in the regulation.

Not much details on what the minimum energy performance standards that need to be compliant with except the potential six stars energy rating system being implemented on all the TV sets. In my opinion, this is a positive move but it should be at least reasonable for the manufacturers to adopt and abide with the guidelines within the appropriate timeframe. Anyway, we should expect to see new revolution of the next generation TV technology such as OLED or SED TVs with better power efficiency to hit the commercial market in the future.