In fact, many plasma manufacturers boast a life span of 60,000 hours to half life! This is a longer life than a tube based television. The specification is somewhat suspect since the process of determining longevity of the product is based on deductive mathematical calculation of phosphor dissipation, and does not take into account the electronic components and the myriad of problems that can occur. Panasonic was the first to claim the 60,000 hour life span, up from a previous 30,000 just a year prior.
Within months after Panasonic announced this new life span, other manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon announcing that their plasma television is now rated to 60,000.
So how long will a plasma last? The long and short of it is that it depends upon your daily hourly usage as well as how you use the monitor.
12 to 55 years is my new short answer.
For consumer use these numbers should be comforting. Plasma Displays are now about equivalent in longevity to LCDs, which typically state 60,000 hours. Consider that these figures are a great amount more than
old CRTs, which regularly
post life span to half brightness at 25,000 hours. Let's put these hours in perspective. The
average U.S. household watches 4 to 6 hours of television per day. Staggering. Taking a mean time manufacturer stated longevity of
50,000 hours of usage, times our average 5 hours per day, calculates to over 27 years of usage. Now, there are varying degrees of phosphor ignition along the way (the same way a CRT fades). Dissipation begins the moment you turn the set on. After 1000 hours of usage a plasma monitor should measure around 96% of its original brightness, which is barely noticeable to the naked eye. At 15,000 to 20,000 hours the monitor should measure around 80% brightness, or to state is technically, 80% of the original phosphors (gases) are being ignited.
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