October 3, 2007

World's Most Boring TV Program Measures Your TV's Energy Usage

(Credit: Reuters)

With climate change being a real threat to the existence of the human species, the Geneva-based International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has devised "what may be the world's most boring TV program to measure energy consumption on new-generation televisions".

The 10 minute program has been developed to be a standard way of measuring how much energy LCD and plasma TVs use.

To create the program, broadcasters and TV manufacturers measured the proportion of broadcasting time for each genre of programming and then edited a mishmash compilation of images from different genres into a program that apparently "lacks drama". The reasoning behind the proportioning of genres into different time categories is that some types of programming require more energy than others.

"The images are supposed to be a representation of what we watch, but when you stick it together it doesn't make much sense", IEC spokesman Dennis Brougham told Reuters. He compared it to a test pattern on television that viewers can use to tune their sets.

The program will be used in the development of a new international standard by the IEC to accurately measure the energy consumption by different sets and allow manufacturers to provide accurate energy usage label on televisions for consumers.

The IEC has estimated that reducing energy use per model 25 percent by 2009 could save more than 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year in the United States alone.

Via Reuters