The CEA Fails to Dissuade the CEC
By Paul Semenza - Senior Vice President, Analyst Services and Paul Gagnon - Director, North American TV Research
After many months of debate and discussion, the California Energy Commission (CEC) issued a final decision to implement rules limiting power consumption for TV sets sold in California, starting in 2011.
The opponents of the rules, led by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), made a host of arguments, both at a boisterous hearing in October, and in a 91-page submission made to the CEC on November 2. The CEA spent a considerable amount of resources fighting the regulations, including commissioning two different studies critiquing the CEC’s methodology. The critiques mainly focused on disputing the magnitude of energy consumption and cost savings that the CEC claimed would result from their regulations.
But the opponents also made contradictory arguments. On the one hand, complying with the regulations would increase costs and stifle innovation in TV design, and on the other hand, that the industry was already improving energy efficiency, and that voluntary regulations like Energy Star were sufficient. As the chart below shows, for the most part, the “other hand” was right. There are numerous sets already available on the market that comply with the Tier 1 regulations that will not go into effect for over a year.
Figure 1: California Energy Commission Proposed Maximum Energy Usage for TVs
The data also show that the argument about stifling innovation does not hold up. One of the biggest innovations in TVs this year has been the introduction of LED backlit LCD TVs. As the chart indicates, these are the sets that are most energy-efficient at this time. And over the next few years, energy efficiency will improve and costs will fall, due to improvements in LED performance, backlight unit design, and LCD design. So there should be plenty of room in the power budget for connectivity and other new innovations.
Plasma, it should be noted, is at a significant disadvantage in meeting these requirements, but that is precisely where innovation can play a role. Just like the claims of regulations banning plasma in Europe earlier this year, some have alleged that these regulations do the same. But, despite the CEA’s claim that the energy regulations constituted a “ban on new and evolving TV technologies,” the regulations are completely technology-agnostic. Set makers can use whatever technologies and features they want, as long as they come in under the curve.
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As the representative of the LCD TV Association at the CEC hearing, I can attest that you (Paul) identified the contradition that bothered the commissioners during my testimoney and the testimony of others correctly. The LCD TV Association supported the regulation in general but some members worried about power limits if they added unidentified functions to TV sets in the future. As you indicated, the trend of LCD technology leads to less power consumption but the well-known power-speed law suggests that computational power consumption could rise if future sets had nearly super-computer capabilities for bionic input/output. For this reason, some members of the association preferred no power limits.
The other factor leading to worry was incomplete understanding of the proposed test methods. The regulation states that power consumption will be measured with extra features turned-off. Therefore, if set designers prepare properly, the interface between your TV set and your cyclotron (just kidding) would be switched off during the test. I think brands can work with the CEC testers to add value to their products without breaking their power budget.
In my opinion, Ken Lowe of Vizio offered the most insightful comment during the hearing. He warned that the regulation could cause a surge of service calls to brands, retailers and cable companies until consumers get used to the new spec. The operational spec calls for the TV picture to go black (off) when there is no input. That’s logical but that means the TV will go dark when a DVD is ejected or when the player is turned-off, if the user doesn’t switch input modes first (e.g. to antenna). That suggests a problem of education far greater than the problem of educating set designers.