Better than a Solar System?!

So in my quest to eradicate my power bill I came up with simple and (extremely) cost effective initiative to save me no less than $900 p.a. on my electricity bill!

I like watching TV and occasionally playing computer games, and my son also gives it a hammering as well. Our (now) old plasma (details see table below)  was a real power hog, 515W!! Last year I'd been sticking my head around the back of new LED/LCD TV's in various retailers and noticed that similar sized sets of this type were labelled around 160-200W.

Imagine my surprise when I resumed those checks a few months ago and discovered the latest models in the 50"+ range are rated less than 80W!

I had to do the numbers because my mental arithmetic was hinting at BIG POWER SAVINGS....

TV power consumption comparison
Assumptions
1	Operate for	6	hours daily
2	Power cost is	$0.36	/kWh
	Existing		Proposed
Model	TH-46PZ800A		TH-L50EM6A	TH-L50ET60A	TH-L55ET60A
Cost	$2000		$1,099.00	$1,547.00	$1898
Year of Manuf	2008		2013	2013	2013
Type	Plasma		LED/LCD	LED/LCD	LED/LCD
Consumption (W)	515		60	70.9	70.9
Annual Cost	$1118.58		$130.32	$153.99	$153.99
Saving			$988.26	$964.59	$964.59

As you can see the outlay makes good sense, not to mention the hidden benefit: at 500+ watts the old set was quite warm, contributing significant "heat loading" to our large loungeroom, our A/C would need to use a similar additional amount of electricity to neutralise this added heat on already warm days, so my power saving would be even greater. Arguably in winter that heat would be handy and save on heating, but additional clothing is a cost effective way of keeping warm on most occasions. 

We've had the new set a few weeks now, but before I installed it I used a $20 power meter (http://m.jaycar.com.au/m_productView.asp?ID=MS6115) to monitor the last few day's consumption of the old set and nearly a fortnight's usage of the new one, the results below confirm the benefit of the upgrade....

Old from 9:00pm 20/9/13

7.8kWh >> 8:00pm 25/9/13

5days -1hr

(119hrs)

New from 8:00pm 25/9/13

2.1kWh >> 8:00am 7/10/13

11.5 days

(276hrs)