TV set - turning off vs leaving on ? (1 Viewer)

[Ken Stuart]

Hello,
I know the answer to this with regards to PCs and hard drives, but not for TV sets. (In my case, I am referring to direct view sets, but other readers may wonder about this in regards to RP TVs as well.)
The question is twofold:
- What affect does turning the set off and on have on the life of the set, especially the picture tube?
- Given the ever-increasing price of electricity, and the current shortage in California, how would you judge that the above set life aspect relates to saving electricity? And given the "standby" features of most sets, does turning off the power actually do all that much, in terms of saving electricity?
(I assume that this has been discussed before, but it looks like the search function doesn't have access to any significant amount of prior posts - probably due to all the failed software changes...)

 

[Todd Hochard]

Cycling the power to a TV set does THEORETICALLY have a marginally detrimental effect on the heater for the electrode in the CRT, in much the same way as cycling an incandescant light bulb does. Mind you, this isn't something that will significantly affect the performance over the life of the set, just that eventually it will fail. In practice, the vast majority of picture tubes will FAR outlast your desire to own the set (20 years), so it is inconsequential.
However, TV sets are BIG power consumers. I recently was messing around with my system measuring on and off current draws (I'm a geek, I do this, what can I say?

). Here's what I found:
1993 Sony 27" Direct View: 6W standby, 94W ON black screen (no signal)
2000 Pioneer Elite Pro-510HD (53" RPTV): 4W Standby, 175W ON black screen (no signal)
Denon AVR-3300 Receiver: 1.5W standby, 50W ON no signal (i.e. Nothing playing)
Dishplayer 7200 Receiver: 22W when "off", 25W on with hard drive spinning. This is due to the fact that the LNB and receiving circuits are always powered up.
Also note, newer devices that have the Energy Star label consume even less power in standby than those above (I think for the label, they have to consume

 

[Jack Briggs]

Also, by leaving the set on, are you talking about its having an active picture at all times? If so, there's the issue of phosphor wear. Some people think they need to "break in" their TVs, which is not a good idea.
I say leave the thing plugged in if you're not going to be away for several days, but switch it into the "On" position only when you're going to use it.
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[Steve Schaffer]

Although I've read some pretty convincing arguments for leaving high-end amps and such on all the time, I don't think this applies to TVs, either direct view or rptv.
The important thing is not to leave a stationary image on the set for long periods of time, though this is more critical on rptvs than direct view sets. I don't leave a stationary image on my rptv for more than a few minutes at a time, and never leave a really bright stationary image on it.
If I'm going to the corner for a slurpee and am only going to be gone a few minutes, I leave the tv on. If I'm not going to be watching for an hour or two, I turn it off.
I've noticed that my 53 inch rptv uses less power than my 32 inch direct view did. I live in CA, so I just turn off a couple or 3 100watt yard lights that I used to leave on all the time at night to compensate for my HT.
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Steve S.
I prefer not to push the subwoofers until they're properly run in.