Earth Notes: On an Energy-Saving Replacement TV, LG 26LS3500 26" Review (2012)

Updated 2022-10-24 12:11 GMT.
By Damon Hart-Davis.
We got a bigger better greener TV that saves us a tenner a year!
TV replacement
Getting a huge TV does not make the content any better! We looked for an upgrade that would be a sensible size and would neither take too big a bite out of our bank balance nor have a silly carbon footprint.

Bigger and Better (and more Frugal)

As of 2011-09 my partner's 13" Sony Trinitron CRT TV was about 20 years old. Still working, but she wanted a new one. And I'd take the opportunity to trim some of its power consumption, about 0.5kWh per day typically. That's about 70W including the small separate SCART/UHF converter for the DVD player. A good low-power TV would be a greener choice than just going for the first TV with a pretty bezel that we see!

LCD LED-backlit 26in TV LG 26LS3500

We don't have a huge living room, so 22" or 24" should be plenty large enough. With an LED-backlit LCD model then power consumption ~50% lower than the CRT seems to be possible. A well-integrated DVD would reduce clutter and could remove another small parasitic standby draw.

We would not chuck the working TV, just maybe wheel it into the kitchen with the existing DVD player. So we'd avoid the Jevons/rebound effect, ie the temptation to watch TV more often thus negating potential energy savings.

2011-09-15: Lined Up

As of today I had the following list of possibles plucked mainly from the Argos catalogue (* for integrated DVD player):

Size Price £ Argos Cat# Brand Model / EAN Consumption In Use / Standby Comment
*22" 199.99 529/6101 Hitachi L22DG07 / 4902530910032 40W/1W EST recommended
*22" 159.99 529/6149 Bush SuperSlim 22 Inch / 5060234040871 ???/1W
*22" 529/5353 Bush LED22916DVDFHD ???/1W EST recommended
22" 149.99 529/8518 Sharp LC22LE22E / 4974019664149 20.3W/0.43W Argos lists power consumption as 24.6W/0.21W
*22" 184 - Sanyo LCE22FD40DV-B / 4994334288172 45W/0.5W From Sust-it.net and manufacturer's site, though note that PDF on manufacturer's site says 45W in use and was confirmed by customer service 2011-09-19:
We referred your enquiry to the Product Manager for televisions and he has advised that the power consumption is 45 Watts when the power is on. Our website will be corrected and meanwhile we thank you for drawing the matter to our attention.
And in a follow-up 2011-09-23 Sanyo confirmed that it has no 22"--26" LED-backlit LCD TVs available in the UK with or without built-in DVDs with in-use consumption well below 45W.
*24" 179.99 529/8130 Bush - 36W/0.3W
24" 159.99 529/8123 Bush 24LED1024 32W/0.3W
24" 189.99 529/8491 Sharp Sharp LC24LE210E 25W/0.25W

Note that a new separate DVD such as the Sony DVPSR750 (Argos 936/8530) should cost ~£40--£50 and consume 6W in use, 0.5W standby.

The Sanyo LCE22FD40DV-B, available via Amazon / Southern Electric for £184.37 as of 2011-09-16 looks very tempting.

2012-08-02: 40W Budget

Still not bought.

A visit to Sony today and Argos a little while ago suggests to me that our 'on' consumption budget should be about 40W max for a TV. I think that that is roughly 'B' rated or better. So 50W (ie an extra 10W) for an integrated DVD. 10W is what their simplest stand-alone DVD consumes and a bit more than ours. That should get up to about the 24" or 26" size that my partner would like.

~40W for the TV would save us ~0.1kWh/d or about the energy used by our ADSL modem. We might be able to get to under 30W for an A-rated device.

The chap in the Sony shop says that Sony has stopped doing integrated DVDs because they break before the rest of the TV. So possibly wise words there suggesting to keep them separate.

2012-11-10: Going, going...

Our old TV is failing today (contrast is going). So we are ordering from Amazon a LG 26LS3500 26"/66cm LED-backlit 1280x720 LCD TV for £214.49 plus a modest delivery charge. It has a claimed 29W in-use consumption (about half that of the old CRT) which may save ~0.25kWh/day. The 15W taken by the PACE cable box is even more glaring. Especially given that the standby on the TV is ~0.3W whereas the cable box only reduces by about 1W!

Note that the size (26") is more than I had thought useful. But Jean had seen a couple this size in other houses, and bigger ones had seemed just too much. This one is as good as I could hope for on the power front. (And I suspect that controls can be tweaked to do better than default.)

I remain slightly wary given LG past form on energy ratings. I shall measure rather than just take on trust.

2012-11-13: Arrived!

The TV arrived today and after an abortive attempt to set up was fine. Comes with an Eco 'Auto' mode by default. In 'Auto' mode I took the following approximate energy consumption values for our new combination of Lime plug to power everything off, TV, PACE cable TV box, and DVD player:

  • 0.5W Lime plug 'off'.
  • 16.8W after power on at Lime Plug and everything nominally in standby/off (approx 0.9W for TV and 1.2W for DVD player in standby).
  • 15.6W with PACE cable box taken out of and put back into standby.
  • 40W with TV (Eco 'Auto') and cable box on (DVD off/standby).
  • 45W with TV (Eco 'Auto') and DVD on (cable box off/standby).

(Measured with Maplin N67HH plug.)

All these readings seem to fluctuate a bit. The PACE box seems to need to be turned on and and explicitly put back into standby after power up to achieve its 1W 'standby' saving.

These measurements were taken before enabling the "Intelligent Sensor" which adjusts the TV brightness depending on room brightness.

Note that the measured ~0.9W TV standby is noticeably higher than the specified "<0.3W" value.

Product: LG 26LS3500 TV

TV replacement
26"/66cm LED-backlit 1280x720 LCD TV (LS3500 series).
  • Brand:
  • Colour: black
  • MPN: 26LS3500
  • GTIN/UPC/EAN: 719192583979
  • Discontinued
  • valid at/until:
Review summary
  • LG 26LS3500 TV
  • Works well, good size, good sound, good remote, energy efficient.

    Replacing ~20-year-old Sony CRT. This is twice the size, thinner and lighter, half the power, nicer sound and, yes, a remote! Sound doesn't need turning up very high. By default in 'eco' energy-saving mode. Not a good idea to let kids touch the screen because of possible damage to more delicate surface.

  • Rating: 5/5
  • Reviewer:
  • Published:
  • Updated:

Sources/Links

  • Photos of the old and new TVs.
  • Amongst other things the sust-it site ranks electrical goods such as TVs and fridges by energy consumption in sensible ways, which is a very valuable service.
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