It's not really discussed publicly much, but many of the TVs with LED backlights actually use more power than their more conventional cathode cousins.
Traditional light sources have been honed for years, after all. LEDs come with other features: they can improve picture quality and brightness. LEDs also don't contain harmful chemicals. The early generations of TVs, though, have not been standouts when it comes to curbing power, according to some of the execs at Japanese TV companies I've spoken to over the years. LED TVs started coming out in small numbers in the middle of the decade and are growing in popularity.
National Semiconductor claims it can change that equation a bit with a new driver, the LM3530, that can control 11 LEDs at once. More importantly, the company has developed light sensing algorithms to dynamically control the LEDs. The chip company put some of its drivers inside of an iPod and saw a 43 to 55 percent increase in power savings when downloading videos. Conceivably, the driver – which costs $1.99 each in quantities of 1,000 – could be used in LED signs and other LED arrays.
TV power consumption will become an increasingly larger issue. The California Energy Commission wants standards that would lead to TVs that consume 33 percent less power than they do now by 2011 and 49 percent by 2013. The Consumer Electronics Association opposes the regulation, but TV makers like Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, etc. have been touting TVs with lower power consumption and prototypes with really low power consumption for over a year.
TVs and other home electronics – printers, etc. – consume about 8 percent of electricity in U.S. homes a year, according to the Department of Energy. Most of that power goes to TVs. Computers consume about 1 percent.
National already sells chips for improving battery and solar cell performance. See a video we did with the CEO Brian Halla here. National has been a background component supplier for computers for years. People in the industry know the name, but consumers don't exactly look for the National name when tooling around Best Buy. Expect them to follow a similar strategy in alternative energy.
