How much electricity does a TV use (Plasma, LED, LCD and CRT) 📺

Power consumption is an issue for all of us who watch a lot of TV. But, do you know how much electricity your TV is consuming?

Well, the power consumption of a TV varies depending on the characteristics of the TV, such as size, technology (panel, resolution, brightness), TV brand (or model), design year and others.

And the total consumption also depends on the time you spent watching it (Not only on the type of device itself).

So let me open this article by explaining the differences and giving examples.

Consumption by size

The consumption ranges from 20 watts for very small devices to 200-400 watts of the big ones (0.5W to 3W on standby mode).

The amount of electricity a TV use is usually determined by its size. As a general rule, the bigger it is, the greater its consumption.

By the way, TVs are measured by their diagonal in inches.

These are average estimates:

  • 24-inch TV: uses about 20W watts.
  • 32-inch TV: consumes 29.5 watts.
  • 39-inch TV: needs 34.8 watts.
  • 40-inch TV: uses 34.2 watts.
  • 43-inch TV: uses 53.1 watts.
  • 50-inch TV: needs 77 watts.
  • 55-inch TV: uses 98.6 watts.

TV type and technology

The averages I showed above don't take into account the differences in technology, so they can be very different from yours. Yes, technology is also a very important factor.

For example, a CRT TV may need 3.4 watts per screen inch, while a plasma TV will need more than 9.4 watts per inch.

These are really general estimates for each technology:

Size LCD CRT Plasma LED OLED
30 inches 60 watts 100 watts 150 watts 50 watts 65 watts
42 inches 120 watts 140 watts 220 watts 80 watts 75 watts
50 inches 150 watts 170 watts 300 watts 100 watts 123 watts

Note: When comparing the total energy usage required by each TV, LEDs are the most efficient of the three, using two-thirds of the electricity used by LCD TVs and one-third being used by plasma screens. 

On the other hand, if we talk about the electricity use by the PC, it is obvious that the TV consumes less energy than the PC.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336778177_Your_TV_and_Energy_Consumption

Now I intend o give you a quick idea of a consumption for each type of TV, real world data.

Plasma TVs

Plasma TVs are less energy efficient than LED and LCD TVs.

In fact, a 42-inch plasma TV can consume more electricity than a refrigerator, even considering a TV that is only used a few hours a day (Wall Street Journal).

So, how many watts does a plasma TV use?

You can find real world plasma TVs here:

https://blog.notechriddles.com/go/l/plasma-tvs.html

Examples:

A 42-inch Plasma model usually consume 200 to 500 watts, and some plasma TVs can use up to 600W.

50” plasma televisions have a consumption in watts that usually vary from 300 to 600.

LED TV

LED power consumption should be about 50% is less than the LCD TV and 300% lesser than the CRT TV.

But how much energy does a LED TV use?

  • 19 inch LED TV consumes 32 Watts per hour.
  • LED TVs use 59 watts of electricity on average.
  • The lowest wattage LED TV recorded uses just 10 watts, while the highest uses 117 watts.

Flat screen TVs: LCD and Smart TVs

The question here is, how much energy does a smart TV or a flat screen TV use?

When it comes to measuring the electricity use by the flat-screen TV, almost 80 to 400 watts of electricity is consumed in routine.

50-inch LCD TV may consume 175 to 246W and the 70-inch may consume anywhere from 270 to 350W.

CRT TVs

Regarding old TVs, how many watts do they use?

Older CRT TVs (big box TVs from the '90s) use about twice the electricity compared to newer, more efficient LED and LCD TVs.

The power consumption of a 30-inch CRT TV is about 150-180W.

OLED TVs

OLED is the new kid on the block.

In general, a 55-inch OLED TV consumes 98W, while an LED model of the same size consumes only 57W.

Brands

We took size and technology into account, but there is also another important factor: brands and TV models.

Same sized TVs with the same technology can also very widely in their power consumption. So it is important to take a look into real world specifications and not just averages.

A Sony XG95 (LED) should have the following consumption:

  • 55 inches: 145 to 256 watts.
  • 65 inches :176 to 313 watts.
  • 75 inches: 230 to 371 watts.
  • 85-inch: 282 to 438 watts.

Panasonic example:

Tip: Click the image to make it larger.

So we can see the Panasonic has a huge difference in power saving. And that leads us to the effects of continuous improvements.

The effect of continuous improvements

It is not really fair to compare TVs from two different manufacturers that have a 10 year gap between them.

The television power consumption has halved in wattage over the last decade.

In the past, most 32-inch LCD TVs exceeded 100W, but energy-saving technological innovation is progressing.

Recent 32-inch LCD TVs have a power consumption of about 60W.

Age of the TV (And frequency of use)

The older a television is, the less energy efficient it’s going to be.

For example, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that older CRT TVs consume 1.5 watts while in standby mode whereas new LCDs use less than one watt.

In addition to the age, the frequency of use can also cause deterioration in power consumption efficiency.

How much does a TV cost per month

In order to find how much it costs you per month, please find how many kWh you spend and multiply it by the cost per kWh in your city. You can find that information in your electrical company's bill.

How many kWh does my TV use?

We will have to do some math to figure out how much electricity your television use.

Example 1

A Smart TV (100 watt) that runs for 12 hours every day will consume 1200 watts-hour (1.2 kWh) of electricity in a day.

And 36-kilowatt hours over an entire month, which is about the average consumption levels among LED smart TVs today.

Example 2

Let’s say that you watch TV for six hours each day on average, and you have one LED TV that uses 50 watts of electricity.

It means you’re using about 300 watt-hours of power every day.

You probably don’t use your TV for exactly six hours every day, but let’s say you use it for exactly six hours each day for exactly one month (30 days).

30 x 300 = 9000 watt-hours per month (Or 9 kWh).

What is the average consumption of a television?

Monthly average TV energy consumption: 18 kWh.

The energy cost is currently 0.1492 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) on average.

https://www.saveonenergy.com/electricity-rates/

Now let's calculate the costs:

US example

On average, LED TVs use 107.7 kWh of electricity per year (about US$16 per year in the US as I write this).

On average, it costs $1.34 per month ($16 annually) to run a TV.

Per day, assuming the device is in "On mode" only, it costs 0.04 cents to run a TV (0.002 cents per hour).

If you would like me to build a calculator for this please drop me a comment below.

Now I'll open a frequently asked questions:

How much electricity does a TV spend on all day (24h)

A 100 watt TV running for 24 hours everyday will consume 2400 watt hours = 2.4 kWh (units) of electricity in a day and 72 kWh of electricity in the entire month.

How to save electricity

First of all, choose your TV wisely. Some TV types (Technologies) will save you a lot of money in the long run.

Second to that, choose models that have proved to be more energy efficient. Most countries have an agency that test and rate electronic's electric efficiency.

Also, remember to adopt LED lighting in your house wherever possible.

TV tweaks

The darker the TV is, the less energy it will use. So, some modes like "read" or "movies" will require less energy. Disable "Backlight" if possible (I don't think it is worth to disable it).

Background noise

Some people use TVs for non-entertainment purposes such as helping get asleep.

This could be a waste of energy and an unnecessary expense.

If you absolutely need the noise you could set your phone to produce it. It is much cheaper.

Stand by mode

If you are not using your TV for long periods of time, you should have it unplugged from the power source.

Does the number of volts of my TV influence the energy cost?

Voltage is the pressure that pushes electrons back and forth in an electrical circuit. It does NOT affect power consumption.

The standard voltage in homes is either 110 or 220 volts.

220V is better than 110V because it allows the engineers to use smaller wires but it will not decrease your energy costs. It may decrease the cost of building your electrical network in your home, but not your daily energy costs.

If you are interested in knowing why, please post a comment below and I'll prove mathematically.

If you are interested in technology, be sure to check my other articles.

Bonus: Comparing Plasma to LCD to DLP

Do you like audio and video? If you do, you may prefer this format:

Tip: Turn on the caption button if you need it. Choose “automatic translation” in the settings button, if you are not familiar to the english language. You may need to click on the language of the video first before your favorite language becomes available for translation.

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Technology (EN): How much electricity does a TV use (Plasma, LED, LCD and CRT) 📺
How much electricity does a TV use (Plasma, LED, LCD and CRT) 📺
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