California sets new energy standards for big-screen TVs

The first-in-the-nation criteria, approved unanimously Wednesday by the five-member California Energy Commission, is aimed at cutting the amount of electricity used by new televisions a third starting Jan. 1, 2011. More stringent rules that take effect Jan. 1, 2013, will create a cumulative 50 percent power savings. The standards don't apply to any of the approximately 35 million television sets in use in California or units sold in the coming year.

“It's absolutely undeniable the benefits that this has for the people of California,” said Commissioner James Boyd, an economist and former official at the California Air Resources Board. “Efficiency is the cheapest and simplest way to save our citizens money, to provide a good quality of life and to drive our economy.”

Since the sale of flat-panel televisions began to rocket at the beginning of the decade, TV-related power usage more than tripled to 10 billion kilowatt-hours per year, accounting for nearly 10 percent of residential electricity consumption, said Commissioner Arthur Rosenfeld, a nuclear physicist and University of California, Berkeley professor. Opponents called the new rules unnecessary, and California consumers had mixed views Wednesday of the new TV regulations.

“It saves energy, which saves the bottom line for the consumer and for the big picture it helps save the environment,” said Younger Hong, 35, a Web developer and teacher. Shopping at a Best Buy store in West Hollywood for a 40-plus-inch TV, he added, “TVs are one of the biggest energy consumers in the house; it's a good start.”

But John Mayberry, an audio-video control systems engineer in San Marino, was not as enthused. The state could find much more energy savings by going after waste in the antiquated electric transmission system, he said.

“Their prioritization of what to do seems askew,” he said.

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