Plasma To Be Banned?

As the EU calls for a ban on plasma TVs a leading Harvey Norman executive said that the issue should be left to vendors who at the recent CES Show in the USA showed an array of low powered TV display screens.

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.

David Ackery the General Manager of Electrical at Harvey Norman said that the decision over display screens should be left to vendors not Government. “We are seeing vendors take the issue of power reduction seriously. At the recent CES show we saw vendor after vendor show new low power plasma and LCD display screens and we are aware that several of them are working together in Australia to deliver products that comply with what the Australian Government is trying to achieve.  

In Europe the  EU move has been blasted by civil rights campaigner and Daily Express columnist Ann Widdecombe who is also a Tory MP. She describes the plans as “outrageous interference” in people’s personal lives.

She said: “We have already got the situation of being compelled to have ‘green’ light bulbs with poisonous mercury in them. First it was the light bulbs and now they are after plasma screen TVs. There is no climate change, hasn’t anybody looked out of their window recently? Government intervenes too much in people’s personal lives. When you can’t decide what you plug in at home it has really come to something.”

The potential ban follows last week’s withdrawal of the 100w light bulb as part of the Government’s drive to push down each household’s carbon footprint.

Later this year the European governments are set to agree on a mandatory EU regulation to come up with minimum energy standards for televisions, with the worst performing ones being phased out.

The UK Energy Savings Trust estimates that the average plasma screen uses around 822 kilowatt hours a year.