When it comes to worrying about your electricity bill, the tv use should be low on the priority scale. Modern TVs such as LED powered sets have incredible energy efficiency and will not add significantly to your overall energy costs.
The amount of energy a TV uses will vary and various things will affect the costs such as the type of TV.
- Plasma Tvs - These typically consume 100 watts to 500 watts of electricity
- LCD TVs - These typically consume 70 - 200 watts of electricity
- Oled TV's - These typically consume 50 - 200 watts of electricity
- CRT - Cathode Ray Tube sets typically consumer more than other sets for the same size screen.
1) Size of Television
The size of the television will have an impact on the power demand of the set. Modern televisions are incredibly efficient when compared to older sets and this is, in part, due to the improved technology such as LED over the older TVs such as CRT TVs. Larger TVs of any style will use more electricity than smaller sets of the same technology.
Back to top2) Watching Habits
Those of us that sit and watch the TV for several hours every day will see a higher cost of electricity than those that only turn on for an hour or so. The longer you use any appliance the more electricity you will consumer overall. If you are a heavy TV watcher and also concerned about your electricity rates then its best to cut down on the number of hours that you watch and, I don't know, read a book or something?
Back to top3) Standby or OFF?
There has long been an argument that leaving a TV set in standby will cost you a fortune in electricity costs so lets have a look at the actual costs of electricity usage when an appliance like a television is left in standby. Currently, in the UK, electricity costs are around 27 pence per kilowatt hour (kWh). This means that a 1 kilowatt appliance used continuously for an hour will cost you 27 pence ignoring standing charges.
I always have LG television sets so let's look at the LG OLED 55 inch TV Model Number oled55c54la (https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs-soundbars/oled-evo/oled55c54la/?srsltid=AfmBOoqzocA6MV2MV4edNP4N671tYk1Tdnob7ZpRRw8mxHVQQTRVefKE). This TV uses up to 191 Watts of power when running at best definition according to the specifications. This would cost £0.05 pence per hour to run at my current electricity costs. In standby according to the specifications it uses around 0.5 Watts. If we calculate the cost of permanent standby 24 hours per day for 365 days in the year the electricity costs would be £1.18 for the year. I don't know about you, but I am really not going to worry about that.
Back to top4) Vampire power
Vampire power is named due to the nature of appliances on standby sucking electricity from the supply in the background. If you have several TV sets and a multitude of other appliances all sitting in standby then an argument could be made for the small amount of electricity that each uses in standby mode significantly adding to your bills over the course of the year.
Back to top5) Do Larger Models of TV use more kwh of electricity?
In short, yes! Let's look at one of the Samsung models.
The Samsung (https://www.samsung.com/uk/tvs/oled-tv/qe48s90daexxu-hw-s50bxu-f-48s90ds50b/) 48" S90D television uses 66 kWh per 1000 hours energy rated at G, Whereas the much larger Samsung 100" QN80F uses 175kWh per 100 hours despite being energy rated at F. Energy guide labels are available on TV sets to allow you to see how much the set will cost you to run.
Back to top6) What affects the energy efficiency and power consumption of a TV?
There is little better to reduce the overall power consumption of a TV than watching it less! Various factors will increase the costs of watching the TV such as:
- The TVs energy consumption per hour
- Larger Screens Typically use more electricity
- Older technology will be less efficient than modern tech
- Brightness settings - the brighter the screen the more energy is required
7) What should i look for when buying a new TV?
Look for the energy-saving features that are available in each model and consider using energy-saving modes when watching your new TV. Consider a model that is more energy efficient and limit the screen size if a massive television is not really necessary. Look at the overall tv wattage to give you an idea of the energy consumption of a tv. The energy guide labels give useful information regarding energy consumption per 1000 hours and overall efficiency.
Back to top8) Conclusion
Whilst prolonged use of a large screen television can indeed increase your electricity bills, it is certainly not the most power hungry of household appliances. Newer models are generally more efficient than older models (along with improved picture quality) using less electricity "inch for inch" than older technology. If your energy use is important to you or you are trying to reduce your overall energy bill then look at using a more energy-efficient model, sleep mode, avoid standby mode, turn your screen brightness down and limit the amount of TV that you watch.
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