Unplugging your LG OLED Smart TV may damage it, but it saves energy. In fact, unplugging an OLED TV instead of leaving it in standby interferes with the pixel refresh process and can cause burn-in. In this article, kwgeek tells you why you shouldn’t unplug your LG OLED Smart TV.
Appliances consume energy when plugged in, even when turned off, as they are in standby and ready to start. According to a U.S. Department of Energy survey, backup power accounts for 5-10% of residential electricity consumption.Among them, according to the team The internetIndicates an average annual consumption of $100.
However, sleep mode, also known as vampire energy, is responsible for automatically updating the pixels of an OLED TV in the background. In other words, every time you unplug and plug your Smart TV, the process restarts and can cause permanent damage to the TV over time, such as burn-in.
Preventing OLED TVs from going to sleep can cause screen burn-in
Last week, I showed you how to automate your morning routine with a smart plug. In this tutorial, I explain that one of the advantages of using these gadgets is to control the energy consumption of household appliances and provide the possibility to turn them off remotely. However, my colleague Stefan Möllenhoff, who recently purchased an OLED TV from LG, shared some very curious, even disturbing information with me.
In 2018, a consumer in Germany used an LG OLED TV with a smart plug, turning the TV off completely after use. His purpose is to prevent equipment from catching fire due to current fluctuations. However, this safety measure ended up causing ghosting on the TV screen. This is also a not-so-uncommon feature of OLED and AMOLED screens.
What the person didn’t know at the time was that in standby mode, LG TVs perform a compensation process (also known as panel refresh) that helps avoid burn-in effects.According to German channels Heizer Since this potential ghosting effect was not mentioned in the TV’s instruction manual at the time, the manufacturer replaced the device.
However, such information is now found in the operating materials of many OLED screen-equipped smart TV models from LG and other brands, and may even void the warranty. In the video below you can see a full explanation of the problem and how to avoid permanent damage in the future:
As described in the video above, the standby TV performs an automatic pixel update in the background after four hours of use. So if you unplug the TV or turn off the mains, this process doesn’t happen. In the short term, this may not be a problem, but over time the TV may experience ghosting, causing permanent damage to the image.
For more information on the pixel update for LG OLED TVs, visit the manufacturer’s official page:
The Pixel Refresher feature built into LG OLED TVs automatically detects pixel degradation through periodic scans and compensates if necessary. It can also detect any voltage change in the TFT (Thin Film Transistor) during power down, detecting and correcting pixel degradation by comparing it to a set reference value. -LG
in conclusion
In the United States, a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that consumers could save $8 billion annually if they reduced the number of always-on devices. This means a reduction of 64 billion kWh of electricity annually and a reduction of 44 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution in the environment.However, as a report The internetNRDC estimates that the cost of an always-on appliance could average as much as $165 per year per household.
So it is clear that we can conclude that unplugging appliances saves energy and even brings environmental benefits. Nonetheless, it is necessary to understand how to make the most of this action. For example, according to the owner’s manual for LG OLED TVs, this could cause permanent problems with these devices, turning savings into losses.
So, do you leave your TV in standby mode, or do you prefer to save energy by plugging it in every time you use it?
