Saving Power?

Over the holidays we brought a new TV and I thought I’d best check the power consumption since saving power was part of the justification for the purchase. The old TV was a 3rd generation Plasma (from 2005) and the new one is LCD LED so it will use less power, right?

I’ve already posted about the smart power board we purchased in No more vampire devices but what if the TV was better then the standby power used by the power board? Why would I think this could be possible, well since we swapped TVs around I have had to manually activate the power board as the IR sensor is still attached to the old TV. Each time I’ve noticed that the power board is warm, this means that it is consuming a significant amount of power. Time to attach the power meter!

So what were the result?

The power board, old TV, Wii, and PS3 in standby consumed 7 Watts
The power board, new TV, Wii, and PS3 in standby consumed 4.5 Watts

I measured the new TV by itself, it didn’t even register a reading! That means that my based on my power meter it consumes less than a milliwatt!

What about the smart power board? It measured 2 Watts! So now I’ve just unplugged the Wii (2 Watts) and replaced the smart powerboard with a plain old normal power board and now the standby power is 0.5 Watts. A saving of 6.5 Watts in standby!

Oh and the TV also uses about half the power when it it turned on as well but it does have a 7 star rating!

New Playstation 3 – Prices and Where to buy in Australia

Ok, now that ABC has joined the party and is now offering iView on the PS3, that is the deal maker for me.

So where to buy it? Well America is the best answer as our friends in the US of A get the console for about AUD$375 compared with the RRP of AUD$499 here in Australia. However shipping, 110VAC power supply, and region locked Games and BluRay movies make this money saving purchase unviable.

So what deals are the locals offering?

JB HiFi gives it to you for $494 and throws in a HDMI cable.
Dick Smith has done nothing but at least they read the RRP and have it listed at $499 unlike Big W who must have missed that detail and have it listed for $587.44!

Harvey Norman will give you a game although they don’t say which one and they have knocked a whole dollar off the price at $498.

So far the lowest price I’ve seen is dStore at $474.95

Most of the other major national retailers still don’t seem to have grasped the whole internet thing and only have web pages showing the catalogues that I’ve already seen over the last month and have nothing about the new PS3.

If I’ve missed any bargains let me know!