CEA Urges DOE Adoption of ANSI/CEA-2037 TV Test Procedure

The Department of Energy should adopt with “specified discrete changes,” the ANSI/CEA-2037 test procedure for measuring the energy use of TVs, the CEA said. The Energy Star program now references ANSI/CEA-2037 and the DOE should embrace it to “avoid the federal government using and promoting two different test procedures,” the group said in comments on the DOE’s rulemaking on developing a federal TV test procedure. The department repealed its 1979 TV test procedure after industry groups and the California Energy Commission pointed out that it was outmoded in light of the digital transition.

CEA “strongly opposes” a luminance requirement in the test procedure because it’s “unnecessary, premature and essentially not energy related,” it said. In the absence of any significant consumer complaints about the default brightness setting of their sets, any move to “impose limits on luminance” or tie brightness levels to power levels is “speculative and premature,” it said. But if the DOE deems it appropriate to have a luminance requirement, the CEA suggests it replicate the Energy Star luminance rules in version 4.1 of the TV specification, the group said.

The TV test procedure the DOE is developing shouldn’t apply to computer monitors, CEA said. Displays used for commercial applications and TVs that function solely on battery power should be exempt, it said. The CE Retailers Coalition wants a single federal standard that produces “uniform data,” it said. “Retailers that sell the same products in thousands of stores in 50 states cannot reasonably be expected to juggle information from different states in addition to, or potentially in conflict with, the Energy Star labels.” CERC wants ANSI/CEA-2037 to be designated the federal test procedure, it said. The testing should focus on performance in the consumer home, “where the energy savings are more attainable,” and not in retail stores, CERC said.

Power savings technologies such as the auto-standby feature mandated by California can save energy but also “risk annoying consumers,” said Sharp Labs. Other rules such as California’s requirement for a power button that puts the TV into “passive standby” can have “negative consequences” like terminating a nearly complete program guide download, it said. “The best power saving technologies are invisible to the consumer, such as LED backlighting, and local dimming,” it said. It would be “extremely difficult” to calculate the energy savings of “presence sensors” that are found on a small group of TVs, said Panasonic. DOE should use the same definition of a TV that Energy Star employs, said Sony. But if the department chooses to include computer monitors in the test procedure it should devise “unique and separate test clauses” to account for product differences, it said. Mitsubishi urged the DOE not to justify a luminance requirement on the “speculative risk that televisions might be sold that are ’too dim.'”