Despite several plasma vendors including Panasonic who are the worlds #1 manufacturer showing plasma power reductions of up to 40 percent, the European Union wants to ban the display technology. There is also speculation that the Australian Government may follow their lead however a senior CE executive has said that the issue needs to be left to the consumer electronics industry to sort out.
Last week the EU Government banned the purchase of a 100W light globe in a move that is also set to be mirrored in Australia. Now the EU is claiming that a 42in plasma television uses over twice as much power as a traditional television set. Some of the larger models can take as much electricity to run as a fridge freezer they say.
However the claims are simply not true say several plasma manufacturers.
At the recent CES, Paul Read the General Manager of Consumer Products, showed ChannelNews and SmartHouse a new range of plasma screens that used 40 percent less power than current models. The power usage was also lower than some LCD TV's and significantly lower than a great deal of domestic appliances. The low power models will be on sale in Australia by either later this year or early in 2010.
A Pioneer Electronics executive at CES said "Most manufacturers recognise that we have to reduce the power usage of plasma TV's and we are achieving this with our new models that have cut power consumption by up to 50% without the loss of brightness to the screen. Several manufacturers are co-operating together to deliver power saving". He said.
