Shopping for Energy Saving LCD's

March 10, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

LCD monitors are now the standard over older CRT monitors. Aside from their thinner profile and lower cost they also use half to two thirds less energy than CRTs. When searching for an energy saving LCD look for the following.

• Internal Power Supplies. External power supplies have no standby mode and consume energy while the monitor is off.
• The Energy Star Logo (every LCD should have it).
• Choose a smaller LCD. Large LCD’s, 21" and above, while more efficient than large CRT’s consume more energy.

Both CRT and LCD monitors run in either normal or standby modes. In normal mode the monitor is operating at full power. In standby mode the monitor turns off non-essential components to conserve electricity. You can tell Windows to automatically turn off your monitor when the computer is idle by going into Power Options in the Control Panel and changing the "Turn off monitor" value.


P3 International sells a home Watt meter called Kill-A-Watt that will tell you in real time and cumulatively how much energy your device is using. A Kill-A-Watt can be purchased for $20-$30 on the internet. Using that I created a sampling of various LCD and CRT monitors.