How Much Electricity Does a TV Use?

Televisions got much bigger and much cheaper to run at the same time, which is why the old advice about unplugging the TV to save money no longer holds up. A 65-inch LED today draws less than a 32-inch plasma did in 2009.

Screen size, panel type and the setting that costs most

Screen size drives most of the difference, but panel type and picture settings matter more than people expect. An OLED draws power per lit pixel, so a dark film uses noticeably less than a bright sports broadcast. An LED-backlit LCD draws fairly steadily regardless of content, unless it has local dimming.

The setting that costs the most is the shop display mode many sets ship in, sometimes called Vivid or Dynamic. It runs the backlight at maximum. Switching to a Standard, Movie or Eco picture mode typically cuts television power draw by 20 to 40 percent and, as an accidental bonus, usually looks better.

Cost by hours watched per day

Roughly what each screen size draws

These are typical figures for LED-backlit sets in a normal picture mode. OLED panels of the same size vary far more with content, so treat them as a range rather than a number.

• 32 inch: about 30 to 45 W, roughly $0.01 an hour.
• 43 inch: about 50 to 70 W.
• 55 inch: about 60 to 90 W, roughly $0.01 an hour.
• 65 inch: about 90 to 130 W.
• 75 inch and above: about 120 to 200 W, and higher again on HDR content.

The pattern is that power scales with screen area rather than with the diagonal number people quote. Going from 55 to 65 inches is a 40 percent increase in area, and the wattage tends to follow.

The set-top box problem

Work out the cost of everything plugged in around the television and the picture often changes. A television watched five hours a day is off for nineteen. The boxes attached to it may not be.

• An older cable or satellite DVR drawing 25 W around the clock uses 219 kWh a year, which is $40.38 at current rates. That is more than the television.
• A games console left in instant-on or rest mode typically draws 10 to 15 W continuously so it can download updates.
• A soundbar with a wireless subwoofer commonly draws 5 to 10 W in standby, because the subwoofer is listening for the bar.

A single switched power strip for the entertainment equipment, excluding anything that needs to record on a schedule, deals with all of this in one move.

How to check your own set

Two reliable methods. The energy label or the manufacturer specification sheet gives a tested annual figure in kWh, usually based on a standard number of viewing hours; divide it out to get a per-hour number for your own habits. Or use a plug-in energy monitor, which costs about twenty dollars and reports actual draw in your actual picture mode with your actual content.

The second method is worth doing once if you have a large OLED, because the gap between the specification figure and real-world HDR viewing can be substantial in either direction.

Standby is no longer the problem

Standby draw used to be a real argument. It is not anymore. Regulations have pushed most sets to under 1 W in standby, which is around a dollar a year. Unplugging the television at the wall saves an amount of money you would struggle to notice.

The exception is the equipment around it. Older cable and satellite boxes can draw 15 to 30 W continuously whether you are watching or not, which over a year adds up to more than the television. A soundbar with a subwoofer, a games console left in instant-on mode and a set-top box together can easily exceed the screen itself.

TV cost across electricity rates

TV running cost by state

How this compares to everything else you plug in

Per hour, against everything else in the living room and office.

Questions people actually ask

Related running costs

Running it on solar

A television uses 0.45 kWh a day, which needs about less than one standard 400 W panels. Full array, battery and inverter sizing is on how many solar panels to run a television.

Run the numbers on your own bill

• Electricity Cost Calculator
• Whole-Home Appliance Load Calculator

Costs on this page use a national average residential rate of 18.44¢ per kWh (August 2026, EIA-derived state residential averages). Your own rate is printed on your electricity bill and is the number that actually matters. Every figure here is recalculated from one central rate setting, so these tables move when the national average moves.