Getting caught in the technology

I went shopping for a flat screen HD TV last weekend and, although I did some homework, got caught up in 'bigger is better' thinking. After looking at LCD, plasma and DLP I asked the salesperson about the energy requirements of these technologies. The salesperson didn't know and commented that no one has asked him that before. After some searching, on their store web site and the manufacturer's, we couldn't find this information. We called the manufacturer and after being questioned, passed along, questioned, passed along and put on hold many times, we finally got the power consumption ratings for several models.

My present 36" cathode ray tube TV, using the Kill-A-Watt to measure, uses 45 watts. A 46" LCD model (which is about the same size only wider) uses 260 watts and a 52" model uses 320 watts. The 52" plasma uses 640 watts - 14 times my current TV.

So, aside from the significant initial cost for a new TV, I will now be paying at least 6 times the cost for electricity to use it. Someone please check my math but assuming you use the TV for 4 hours a day for 365 days a year, at 12 cents per Kwh,
you get the following table.

Consumption Watt Hours Kwh/Year Cost/Year
-45------------65700---------65.7-----$7.88
260------------379600-------379.6----$45.55
320------------467200-------467.2----$56.06
640------------934400-------934.4----112.13

As stated in the recent article about the record use of electricity in Westchester County in 2007, "The demand was powered by construction of office buildings and homes and more use of electronics such as flat-screen televisions, games, computers and handheld devices, the utility said."

With the requirement for HD TV set for 2009, most consumers will be buying these new TVs and we will continue to be faced with record electrical consumption. I can wait another year for a new HD TV, but how do I justify the additional power consumption when that time comes?