[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by mstaton

If they told you the older ones use less energy, they wouldn't sell too many new ones. My sony LCD uses 300 watts of power about the same as a roundie color set. Not much savings there. The Sony is always consuming energy while plugged in and the old sets do not. People will believe almost anything they're told.

My Insignia 19" flat screen TV also uses a small amount of power (under one watt) as long as it's plugged in. That's just to keep the channel memory and other functions from disappearing every time the set is turned off; the TV uses something on the order of 25 watts in normal operation. There is no way to disable the standby function short of unplugging the set from the line when not in use, so we are pretty much stuck with TVs that use power even when turned off. The "instant on" tube type televisions of the '70s had the same problem, but the feature disappeared by the end of the decade due to concerns over fire hazards, to say nothing of increased energy use even with the set off.