After the [projected 65%] rise in the UK October Electricity price cap – your nice new TV costs more to run than it does to buy!

At Pure Storage, we are really proud of the very small physical footprint of our storage arrays, made even denser by really smart software and unbeatable Data Reduction Rates (DRR).  And when it comes to our green credentials we drive out direct carbon usage by up to 80% compared to competitive all-flash systems (yes you read that right -EIGHTY PERCENT less or 1/5th in old money!).

So, while in business many of us are thinking about this more and more, not just from the financial angle, but also the moral and responsible angle, it hasn’t always been something we have thought about at home.  Well, after being horrified by the projected rise in the UK price caps this October 2022 – I thought I’d try and illustrate what this means to consumers in the UK, for example, when they choose their new TV!

I chose 15 TV’s, mostly under £1000 to buy from a really popular UK Consumer Electronics website, all between 55” and 65”.  I whipped up a Google sheet and took a look at how the cost of running a TV stacks up against its original purchase price.  I have done this for both the current (July 2022) UK price cap, and also the projected estimated rise due in October 2022.  The results were astonishing – not only is it more expensive to run your TV for 5 years than it is to buy it – but in some cases IT’S MORE THAN DOUBLE THE COST to run the TV as it is to buy the TV!!!

The chart below shows the TV and its purchase price.  The next column “Today” shows the cost at today’s electricity rates of running the TV for 5 years, the “October” column uses the new rate estimates for October, and the “Total” column is the cost of the TV and the cost of the electricity to run it combined.  Finally, the “Proportion” column shows what proportion of that total cost is the original purchase price.  If the proportion is below 50%, then the electricity cost is greater than the purchase cost.

And just for completeness I added soundbars to show that they add to the impact!

You can read the Pure Storage 2021 ESG report here and jump to page 7 & 10..  You can read the more detailed reports on Pure’s ESG Mission here.