Got a new TV - 46" Samsung 5000 series

Daox · 02-15-11, 08:46 AM

This weekend found a deal on the TV I've been keeping an eye on, the Samsung UN46C5000. Unless the energy star list has been updated since I created a list of efficient TVs, it is currently the lowest power usage 46" TV you can buy with a max power usage of 60W. Thats less than my old tube 27" TV used to use, and its gigantic by compairison. I have yet to use it a ton, but I'll probably write up a review for it after a while.

Amazon.com : Samsung UN46C5000 46-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LED HDTV (Black) : Led Televisions : Electronics

Piwoslaw · 02-15-11, 11:50 PM

Wow, 60W is amazing! Maybe it can go lower if the lighting is adjusted?
Our 37" LCD is a space heater at 160W

Congrats on the find

Daox · 02-16-11, 08:13 AM

Yeah, the TV does have a few power saving options. It has the light sensor on it to detect room brightness and it adjusts screen brightness accordingly. I have also turned down the brightness via an 'eco option' that saves more power. I really have to hook up the kill a watt to see what kind of power its actually using though. If its 60W max, I'm pretty sure I'm under that.

Daox · 02-18-11, 07:20 AM

I just did some quick testing. With a medium lit room, the TV was consuming 46-48W depending mostly on brightness. I'm quite happy with that, but I'll see if it can't be tweaked a little.

RobertSmalls · 02-19-11, 07:47 AM

Unfortunately, the Energy Star rating uses whatever picture settings the television ships with. So EnergyStar is primarily measuring what the default brightness setting is, which is of little use to anyone.

My hunch is that a 46" TV can draw much more than 60W at max brightness... either that or max brightness isn't very bright. That's just the laws of physics, which require that 5/6ths of the light generated by the backlight is turned to heat before it even reaches the matrix. More brightness is lost to the space between the pixels, then in the pixels themselves. Color LCD displays are one of those instances where output energy is, at best, a few percent of input energy.

In any case, I do like Samsungs: http://ecorenovator.org/forum/applia...html#post10299

strider3700 · 02-19-11, 08:40 AM

when testing my 32" I found that the audio volume made more of a difference in power use then the backlight brightness. Also I saw that the different types of tuners used different amounts of power. The tuner for my antenna drawing roughly 10 watts more on the analog channels then on the digital channels. this could have been due to the screen working harder to display the analog signal or due to the tuber it's self.

MN Renovator · 02-19-11, 11:28 AM

The wattage on the back of a device is typically the max it will run after any initial in-rush currents(capacitors, backlight strikes, etc.).

Does this TV advertise LED backlighting?

Usually the only controllable aspect of power consumption in an LCD display is how much power is consumed in the backlight usually its the brightness or white level settings or in some cases they just change it around and call them by whatever energy saving name they feel is most marketable.

48 watts sure is much less than the 230 watts that my 1080p projector is rated for that I use to watch movies. If only I had the throw distance to produce the 300 inch screen would the wattage make the most efficient sense. I wonder how the neighbors would react if I projected a movie on the back of the house at night.

Ryland · 02-19-11, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MN Renovator

48 watts sure is much less than the 230 watts that my 1080p projector is rated for that I use to watch movies. If only I had the throw distance to produce the 300 inch screen would the wattage make the most efficient sense. I wonder how the neighbors would react if I projected a movie on the back of the house at night.

It depends on if your neighbors are invited to join you or not!
I have one of the palm size Aaxa micro projectors that draws 15 watts, it's good for about 60" (80" if you have a good screen) image altho you need a dim lit room or reduce the image size, this is not a problem for me because only watch movies at night.
I'm a big fan of the projector because it frees up space and makes my living room a multi use room rather then a "TV room".

MN Renovator · 02-20-11, 09:21 AM

It's hard to invite neighbors to something that you think they might disapprove of ahead of time. I've got a different projector that uses less power, 6 watts runs off of an LED but its colors are off-hue toward the outside of the image and the resolution appears to be half of 480p but it wasn't too bad to watch movies on but after getting a taste of a large image(about 50" or so), I dug in for something I felt wouldn't disappoint and got a power monster, incredibly bright though even with a large size screen. I also went with the projector because of the free space issue because the room shape isn't ideal for one that sits on the floor and it was much cheaper than any 1080P LCD 50+ inches that I've ever seen.

Pretty sweet though for the 42", 48 watts is great.

Daox · 02-21-11, 07:11 AM

I messed with it a bit more this weekend. There is an eco setting that was set to low. I think it pretty much controls brightness. With it on medium power drops to ~36W and on high it drops to ~24W. However, at high its really too dim to be real usable. I have kept it on medium and we'll see how that works out.

02-15-11, 08:46 AM	#1
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Got a new TV - 46" Samsung 5000 series This weekend found a deal on the TV I've been keeping an eye on, the Samsung UN46C5000. Unless the energy star list has been updated since I created a list of efficient TVs, it is currently the lowest power usage 46" TV you can buy with a max power usage of 60W. Thats less than my old tube 27" TV used to use, and its gigantic by compairison. I have yet to use it a ton, but I'll probably write up a review for it after a while. Amazon.com : Samsung UN46C5000 46-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LED HDTV (Black) : Led Televisions : Electronics Attached Thumbnails __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Last edited by Daox; 02-11-14 at 02:23 PM..

02-15-11, 11:50 PM	#2
Piwoslaw Super Moderator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Warsaw, Poland Posts: 964 Thanks: 189 Thanked 111 Times in 87 Posts	Wow, 60W is amazing! Maybe it can go lower if the lighting is adjusted? Our 37" LCD is a space heater at 160W Congrats on the find __________________ Ecorenovation - the bottomless piggy bank that tries to tame the energy hog.

02-16-11, 08:13 AM	#3
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Yeah, the TV does have a few power saving options. It has the light sensor on it to detect room brightness and it adjusts screen brightness accordingly. I have also turned down the brightness via an 'eco option' that saves more power. I really have to hook up the kill a watt to see what kind of power its actually using though. If its 60W max, I'm pretty sure I'm under that. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

02-18-11, 07:20 AM	#4
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	I just did some quick testing. With a medium lit room, the TV was consuming 46-48W depending mostly on brightness. I'm quite happy with that, but I'll see if it can't be tweaked a little. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

02-21-11, 07:11 AM	#10
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	I messed with it a bit more this weekend. There is an eco setting that was set to low. I think it pretty much controls brightness. With it on medium power drops to ~36W and on high it drops to ~24W. However, at high its really too dim to be real usable. I have kept it on medium and we'll see how that works out. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

02-19-11, 07:47 AM	#5
RobertSmalls Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 344 Thanks: 3 Thanked 17 Times in 15 Posts	Unfortunately, the Energy Star rating uses whatever picture settings the television ships with. So EnergyStar is primarily measuring what the default brightness setting is, which is of little use to anyone. My hunch is that a 46" TV can draw much more than 60W at max brightness... either that or max brightness isn't very bright. That's just the laws of physics, which require that 5/6ths of the light generated by the backlight is turned to heat before it even reaches the matrix. More brightness is lost to the space between the pixels, then in the pixels themselves. Color LCD displays are one of those instances where output energy is, at best, a few percent of input energy. In any case, I do like Samsungs: http://ecorenovator.org/forum/applia...html#post10299

02-19-11, 08:40 AM	#6
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	when testing my 32" I found that the audio volume made more of a difference in power use then the backlight brightness. Also I saw that the different types of tuners used different amounts of power. The tuner for my antenna drawing roughly 10 watts more on the analog channels then on the digital channels. this could have been due to the screen working harder to display the analog signal or due to the tuber it's self.

02-19-11, 11:28 AM	#7
MN Renovator Less usage=Cheaper bills Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 940 Thanks: 41 Thanked 117 Times in 91 Posts	The wattage on the back of a device is typically the max it will run after any initial in-rush currents(capacitors, backlight strikes, etc.). Does this TV advertise LED backlighting? Usually the only controllable aspect of power consumption in an LCD display is how much power is consumed in the backlight usually its the brightness or white level settings or in some cases they just change it around and call them by whatever energy saving name they feel is most marketable. 48 watts sure is much less than the 230 watts that my 1080p projector is rated for that I use to watch movies. If only I had the throw distance to produce the 300 inch screen would the wattage make the most efficient sense. I wonder how the neighbors would react if I projected a movie on the back of the house at night.

02-20-11, 09:21 AM	#9
MN Renovator Less usage=Cheaper bills Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 940 Thanks: 41 Thanked 117 Times in 91 Posts	It's hard to invite neighbors to something that you think they might disapprove of ahead of time. I've got a different projector that uses less power, 6 watts runs off of an LED but its colors are off-hue toward the outside of the image and the resolution appears to be half of 480p but it wasn't too bad to watch movies on but after getting a taste of a large image(about 50" or so), I dug in for something I felt wouldn't disappoint and got a power monster, incredibly bright though even with a large size screen. I also went with the projector because of the free space issue because the room shape isn't ideal for one that sits on the floor and it was much cheaper than any 1080P LCD 50+ inches that I've ever seen. Pretty sweet though for the 42", 48 watts is great.