UHD TV could cost US consumers US$1bn in extra electricity charges

Replacing all US TV sets larger than 36 inches in diameter with new UHD models would generate additional electricity use of eight billion kilowatt-hours a year and cost US homes an additional US$1 billion (€920 million) in electricity charges, according to the country’s Natural Resources Defense Council.

According to a report by the NRDC and consultancy group Ecos Research, based on tests on 21 2014 and 2015 models, a UHD TV replacement cycle could generate additional power use equivalent to three times the amount of electricity consumed by all homes in San Francisco each year, and five million extra metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution.

The organisation recommended that the US Department of Energy should “update the federal television test method to better reflect conditions likely to exist in actual consumer use”, and called on the Federal Trade Commission to “establish a centralised, online version of the EnergyGuide label with more up-to-date comparative information than is now on the mandatory TV labels, and should also provide 10-year lifetime operating cost information to help motivate buyers to choose more-efficient models”.

It also called on utility companies to “design incentive programs to reward products at the most efficient level or, at the very least, at some percentage better than Energy Star [the current US energy-efficiency standard] to ensure that rebates draw the market toward best practices” and said that manufacturers and retailers should provide more detailed guidance to consumers.