LCD's cut energy costs

I'm Justine Nguyen, director of desktop support here at CNET Networks. It has been a really hot summer at our headquarters in San Francisco and the mayor has asked all businesses in the city to see if they can cut energy cost. I did some math and found that LCDs actually do cut energy cost and I'm going to show you how.

The biggest problem/argument against having LCDs replace CRTs is that an LCD costs more than a CRT. For every LCD you buy, you can get two CRTs. Let me just run you through the numbers on that. A 19-inch CRT monitor will cost a $165, a 19-inch LCD monitor costs $325. That's a significant difference.

But if you calculate out the energy costs over the course of the year to power each of these, you will see $36 versus $12. That's three times as much to power it. So when you do your total cost of ownership calculations, a CRT costs $356 over the course of five years, as opposed to an LCD, which costs $386. It's a $30 difference over five years.

It's not as bad as initially it seemed, but that made me think are there any other benefits or costs that could be associated with these devices, so of course there are. The first benefit is employee morale. Everybody loves new hardware. They love getting the space back on their desk, so it has been a very popular initiative here at CNET.

The second benefit is reduced Workmen's Comp claims. A CRT monitor weighs 60% of what an LCD weighs. When you're moving something like that, there's a higher risk of injury. So, you're going to have fewer injuries on the job as opposed to moving a CRT.

And the last benefit, yet to be proven, is a longer lifespan. All indications are that your LCD is going to last beyond the five-year usage that a CRT normally has. So, that is a benefit that most people are not taking into consideration. So, I think I've shown you how LCDs do cut energy costs, at least here at CNET and when you're ready to do your own math, you can follow this link and do your own calculations.