New Energy Star TV spec will improve energy efficiency by 40%
You may want to think twice about buying that new television during some summer-ending Labor Day sales event over the long weekend. That's because the U.S Environmental Protection Agency has raised the bar on what it takes for TVs to earn the Energy Star label. Which means, in short, that any TV you buy this weekend won't live up to that rating.
New equipment meeting the more stringent requirements, which call for a 40 percent improvement in energy efficiency, won't be on store shelves until May 1, 2010, just before the official START of summer next year.
The EPA has worked up a number suggesting that if all TVs sold in the United States met the new spec, it would save about $2.5 billion per year in energy costs. The carbon footprint reduction would be the equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road.
An estimated 19 million TVs with 40-inch-plus screens are expected to ship into the U.S. market in 2010.