LED monitors and power consumption

[noelex]

I often watch a movie at night and until recently did this on a laptop screen. I recently purchased a much larger 22 inch LCD monitor with LED backlighting. I was expecting a good deal more power draw and have been pleasantly surprised that using the large monitor (which has is a much larger brighter higher resolution display than the laptop) and driving the screen with a netbook the power consumption is actually slightly lower than the laptop alone.

I chose a 22 inch Samsung BX2231 monitor it has a great picture, low power consumption and can accept both a 12v and 14v input which should make it ideal for powering directly from the 12v boat supply (I am still running it on a small inverter as I have not rigged up the direct 12v supply yet)

The actual power consumption of everything needed to watch a movie, when playing a movie downloaded on to the internal hard drive of a netbook (netbook powered from 12v)with external speakers (usb powered) and running the monitor from an inverter is 2.8A. Which I think is excellent. This should go down a further 0.3-0.5 A when I get the monitor running directly from 12V.

For a comparison the old laptop with a 15 inch screen (an IBM T60P running from 12v) with external speakers when playing a movie downloader on to the internal hard drive was slightly more at 3.1A. (I have never measured the netbook playing a movie on its own screen as it is too small to be watchable)

Playing the movies from an external hard drive increases the power consumption by about 0. 4A and playing from a DVD about 0.6A (so its worth putting the movie on the hard drive if you want the lowest consumption.

So don’t be afraid lots of power consumption with a larger monitor. The new LED screens do deliver low power consumption particularly when powered from an energy efficient computer such as a netbook

 

[Conachair]

Interesting. One of these days I'll follow. through an invertor my laptop can pull 7A if it's charging the battery as well

Spoke with these guys at the boat show, some nice stuff, looked lovely.
http://sttechmarine.co.uk/?page=home
19" monitor at 14w. But even with their computer at 12w it's still over 2A so not much below what you are drawing.

Very pretty cases though

 

[noelex]

Interesting. One of these days I'll follow. through an invertor my laptop can pull 7A if it's charging the battery as well

Spoke with these guys at the boat show, some nice stuff, looked lovely.
http://sttechmarine.co.uk/?page=home
19" monitor at 14w. But even with their computer at 12w it's still over 2A so not much below what you are drawing.

Very pretty cases though

Thanks for the link. Very cool computers.
The monitor, however, as you say doesnt seem to offer much over a standard model. Its 19 inch and the power does go down a lot as you go smaller so 14w as a direct 12v feed in a 19 inch model is nothing special for an LED monitor given my measurements.

 

[Hoolie]

I have an Asus screen with a rigid VESA mount but it takes about 4 amps with a 12v -> 19v invertor. The Samsung BX2231 has a good spec but there are no mounting points on the back - it's obviously designed for desktop use. We need a firm fixing as it's used at the chart table with our self-built miniITX on-board computer.

 

[noelex]

Yes I got the monitor watch movies at anchor If using underway ,for say, navigation a screen that can be securely mounted is a must. A smaller screen is probably sensible at the moment as well, but the LED backlighting has not filtered down to the small screens yet so sometimes they consume more power despite the smaller form factor