First light bulbs, now EU set to ban plasma televisions
I recently bought a new big screen television, and after many months of reading forum posts and testing sets in shops, I decided on a Sony LCD over a Panasonic plasma. And I’m now glad I did because plasma televisions could soon be banned under new EU (European Union) laws to regulate household energy efficiency.
It’s strange living in the UK because we have to abide by two sets of laws – British law and European law. So if living in America sometimes feels like residing in a police state, come over here to have the feeling doubled. And the EU doesn’t help itself by conjuring up new laws seemingly out of nowhere.
This time last week, I reported how Brits were stocking up on traditional, incandescent light bulbs before an EU-enforced ban came into effect. I agreed with the reasons behind the ban but now I hear it’s part of a bigger scheme to interfere in all our lives I’m not so sure.
According to The Daily Telegraph, televisions are next on the EU’s list of household appliances to interfere with. While we may all love our high-definition, big screen televisions, they are very bad for the environment apparently, and the environment matters more than personal choice in Europe.
According to tests carried out by the EU, a 42inch plasma TV can consume three times as much power as a similar sized LCD TV or large CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) television. It’s thought that a ruling on the technology could come as early as Spring, 2009, and unless manufacturers come up with a viable solution to the energy inefficiency conundrum the plasmas could be banned in Europe.
To be honest, I don’t think many manufacturers will even bother to try to solve the problem. It’ll be much cheaper and easier to ditch the technology altogether in place of the increasingly popular LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) anyway. Plus there’s the fact that LED televisions seem to be regarded as the future.
I’m all for saving the environment, if indeed it needs saving, and saving it is even possible, but I’m not sure if forcing consumers to buy certain products while banning others is really the way to go about it. But if the EU hadn’t suggested it then the British government no doubt would have before too long so it doesn’t really matter anyway.
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January 14th, 2009
Except:
A. For many, plasma has a far more natural and appealing look.
B. I doubt even the EU can legislate you dispose of a TV you already own.
January 14th, 2009
“So if living in America sometimes feels like residing in a police state, ”
Which it doesn’t. Europe is far more regulated and herd mentality. You don’t see our major cities with cameras recording public places like London. National ID cards and pushing net traffic through a mothership database. How civilized.
Euro-Bush Derangement Syndrome is even more unbalanced than what we have over here.
January 15th, 2009
Once again… Dave your an idiot !
stop sucking up to your american audience by talking about Freedom, you always do this,(americans are obsessed with thinking the rest of the world isnt free, thanks to propaganda crap in their country,) it’s a crock of s**T, and your simply feeding them by writing and over exaggerating this rubbish, your just as free as anybody else, and yes america has CCTV all over its CBD’s.
Just listen to the crap Ken wrote “herd mentality”
January 16th, 2009
Erm Dave, that ” Brits were stocking up on traditional, incandescent light bulbs before an EU-enforced ban came into effect” tale is the usual exaggerated BS from one or two of our leading anti-EU ‘newspapers’.
It’s actually rubbish, besides a relative handful of very light-sensitive people almost everyone else has been enjoying lower electricity bills and barely noticed the ‘ban’.
As for Plasma?
Well I bought a little while back and long-term electricity savings were part of my calculation.
I bought LCD.
Perhaps it wasn’t as good (by a mere couple of %…..and whatever gap there was is now closing fast as LCDs improve every year) compared to a Plasma set but so what?
Most of the time it’s just a TV set and for what I lose in movies I make up for in my wallet.
The idea that saving money, energy and making the maximum out of our natural resources is somehow ‘fascist’ or ‘Police state’ is frankly laughable and about as juvenile as it gets.
It’s good to see the USA is now moving away from that kind of ignorant stupidity too now.
January 16th, 2009
BTW this is nonsense too –
“It’s strange living in the UK because we have to abide by two sets of laws – British law and European law.”
‘EU law’ is British law.
EU law is incorporated into British law, having been formulated by the various Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers and their appointed representatives in the various EU bodies and the directly elected MEPs (like the Council of Ministers, the Commission and the EU Parliament).
The idea that the sovereign states that comprise the EU are disconnected from the EU and just periodically handed down this law without any input, or consultation is just to completely fail to understand how it works.
The EU is run by the sovereign states.
Wh do you think formulates the law and comes up with the ideas for policy?
It’s the various Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers and their appointed representatives in the various EU bodies along with the directly elected Members of the European Parliament.
(and in fact the reason why the EU Parliament is kept relatively powerless is to ensure that it is the sovereign member states that wield the most power and that the EU itself cannot become the ‘superstate’ it’s right-wing critics dream it will become – which the recent French and Dutch referendums proved can never happen anyways, the people will not allow it)
January 17th, 2009
I would just like to know which plasma TV they were testing as i have been doing research on which TV to go for (plasma or LCD) and was going for plasma. From the research I’ve done i think the EU testing is very inaccurate or on an old model of plasma compared with the latest CRT screen as CRT TVs now-a-days use a lot more energy then plasma. But then again the 10+ reviews I’ve read might be wrong or maybe the EU have a different reason for banning plasma…
January 19th, 2009
Some good comments here.
My two bob’s worth:
1. The environment is more important than personal choice in a way… damaging the environment will imit our personal choice, and that of the people who replace us.
2. Leaving environmental matters to the marketplace (the theory that people will do what’s in their own best long-term interests) is a bit like leaving finance risk and health to the financial sector, or reducing dependence on oils through vehicle efficiency with vehicle manufacturers.
DaveBG is right about constitution and regulation of EU.