It is nothing new if we say that Europe has a serious energy problem. There is no week that we do not read worrying news on this subject. After turning the car market upside down with the excuse of energy savings, the new victim of the European Union is 8K televisions. Are they going to ban them? Not exactly, but they are going to ask you to leave, which is the same thing, but in a slightly more elegant way.
The EU goes for 8K TVs
The 8K panel TVs they are currently enthusiast devices. They exist simply because technology has reached that point, and brands want to make a return on their investment. However, there is hardly any content in that resolution so that it can be enjoyed on those screens.
We could come to understand that the European Union would ban some useless technology, but the shots don't go that way.
With energy efficiency we have found
If by any chance, you were thinking of getting a television with an 8K panel, you should know that you are going to have a relatively narrow window of time to make your purchase. If everything follows the established plan, in March 2023, televisions of this type will disappear from stores.
The reason for all this is nothing more than a update of the laws that regulate the Energy Efficiency Index. Until now, the entire industry was being measured against a fairly old standard, created for HD and Full HD TVs. The surprise in this regard is that televisions with modern panels consume something more than their equivalents of years ago.
The EU wanted to set the bar in a difficult position for force manufacturers to improve its energy efficiency. But, by not making a specific standard for 8K televisions, these are going to be totally outside the ERA, since they have much higher consumption than the 4K televisions.
A rule that does not end up convincing anyone
As he has studied Flatpanels HD, there is not a single 8K TV currently on the market that meets the requirements of this new Energy Efficiency Index. Marek Maciejewski, Director of Product Development at TCL Europe, considers that if this regulation is finally approved, we will not see more televisions with 8K resolution in Europe.
On the other hand, Samsung believes that it can comply with the regulations, but they are not sure that it is easy.
This is how the limits remain
The real smart tv problem it's that the European Union seems to have regulated all this without taking into account anything beyond the size of a screen. It is obvious that a 4K television consumes more energy than a Full HD television with the same diagonals. With 8K TVs, the exact same thing happens.
Nor does it seem that emphasis has been placed on distinguish technologies such as OLED, Micro LED or LCD. The new ERA puts all televisions in the same bag, as we can see in the following table that has calculated Flatpanels HD taking as reference the data that have been made public on this subject:
| Diagonal | Peak 4K-8K efficiency: March 2023 |
|---|---|
| 40" | 48 watts |
| 42" | 53 watts |
| 48" | 66 watts |
| 55" | 84 watts |
| 65" | 112 watts |
| 75" | 141 watts |
| 77" | 148 watts |
| 83" | 164 watts |
| 85" | 169 watts |
| 88" | 178 watts |