TV wattage is often misunderstood and it’s important to educate people on how many watts TVs use, how that impacts their energy bill, as well as how they can save.
We’ll start by discussing what wattage is and how it affects your TV. Then we’ll explore how people have watched TV in the past and how that has changed with technology.
Finally, we’ll give some tips on how to save energy when watching TV.
The answer to the question “how many watts does a tv use?” is our first section.
How Many Watts Does a TV Use?
In general, the amount of electricity consumed by a typical television is around 50 to 200 watts (W). The majority of TVs consume less than one amp and connect to an outlet of 120 volts.
The amount of time you use your TV has the biggest influence on how much electricity it consumes over time, and television viewing habits vary considerably across households.
Surprisingly, the average amount of time that US citizens spend watching television has been declining for many years, and now it’s down to just over three hours per day. Assuming an average TV wattage of 100 W:
- If you spend 1.5 hours watching television each day, that’s 1.05 kWh of power per week, 4.55 kWh per month, and 54.6 kWh per year.
- 2.1 kWh per week, 9.1 kWh per month, and 109.2 kWh per year are power usage for running the same TV for three hours each day.
- If you use a 100 W TV for 4.5 hours each day, it will consume 3.15 kWh of power every week, 13.65 kWh per month, and 163.8 kWh in a year.
The amount of electricity utilized by a TV of certain wattage varies greatly from one year to the next.
Basic Terms Regarding Electricity
Before we move ahead, you should go through the terminology as they’ll be repeated in the article. The terms are:
- Volts (V): Volts (short for voltage) represent changes in electrical pressure. Simply put, voltage is the rate at which electricity goes through a circuit.
- Amps (A): Amperes are a measurement of electrical current. Simply said, amps are the number of electrons that travel through a circuit in one second (which make up electricity).
- Watts (W) and kilowatts (kW): Watts is a measure of power, and watts equals volts times amps. Simply said, wattage is the rate of energy usage. A kilowatt (kW) is equal to 1,000 watts.
- Kilowatt-hours (kWh): Finally, kilowatt-hours are the measure of energy consumed in a given time period. Simply said, kilowatt-hours are the amount of electricity used over time.
Think of all of these words as water moving through a pipe. The water pressure is the voltage, the amount of water passing by any point is known as amps, and the overall speed at which water travels through the pipe is referred to as wattage.
How to Calculate Wattage?
Look for a tiny silver sticker on the back of your TV to determine its wattage. The input voltage and other technical data regarding your television will be displayed on it.
If you can’t discover it, go to Amazon and look for television with the same features as your TV and see how much power it uses in the product description, or check out your television’s manufacturer’s website.
Let’s assume that the wattage is 180 kWh and you use it 3 hours per day and per kWh, you pay 12 cents.
First, convert energy use to watt-hours by multiplying the label’s kWh by 1,000. This results in 180,000 Wh.
To calculate how much energy your TV will use, divide 180,000 Wh by the number of days in a year you’ll be watching it (likely 365). That equals 493 Wh per day. The average time a TV is used is 3 hours per day, so that’s 164 W of hourly wattage.
The majority of televisions are now powered by 120-volt outlets. To find the amperage for your device, use the following formula: 164 W / 120 V = 1.37 amps.
Does TV Consume Electricity When Off?
Vampire energy affects televisions in the same manner as it does other appliances. This is the loss of energy from equipment that has been switched off but left plugged in.
They continue to consume electricity while they are active, and devices that require a fast power-up, such as televisions, use a significant amount of energy.
According to some individuals, vampiric energy may account for up to 75% of the energy consumed in American homes. There’s no question that it can cost individual houses hundreds of dollars each year.
This might be offset by using power strips that can contain televisions, cable boxes, and other electronic gadgets such as video game consoles.
Removing the strip will entirely shut off electricity to all of those gadgets, preventing you from losing money due to your television and other appliances.
Because of the start-up time, it may take a little longer to watch your shows, but the savings will make up for it.
TV Timeline: Past to Present
Televisions come in a variety of shapes and sizes. TV technology is always on the verge of innovation, therefore there are many various types available.
In the past, bulky cathode ray tube televisions (CRTs) were in most people’s homes, but today, several slimmer television sets have the capability of displaying high-definition pictures.
LCD Panels
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, LCD screens began to slowly enter homes. The major distinction between these sets and others is that they are thinner, allowing homeowners to place them on a wall.
LCD televisions utilize pixels, which are tiny lights that come in red, blue, and green varieties that are rapidly changed to generate moving color pictures.
Plasma
Essentially, plasma is a gas that can conduct electricity. As more power is fed to this gas, more activity occurs, resulting in particles colliding and releasing light photons as a result of the increased energy input.
The technique in which photos are displayed, as well as the process by which flat screens can be created for plasma televisions, is similar to that of LCDs. And, like LCDs, plasma TVs have seen a surge in popularity throughout the early part of the twenty-first century.
Though they are thought to have superior contrast when compared to LCDs, it should be remembered that they are not as energy-efficient.
LED TVs
The television is an electrical device that displays images generated by computers and computer graphics on the screen. Today, these televisions are thinner than previous technologies because of LEDs, just like there are LED light bulbs available for purchase.
Although they feature an LCD display, these electronics’ actual televisions use LEDs to generate illumination. These bulbs are some of the most energy-efficient and compact available on the market, which helps them to be even thinner than other TVs.
Smart TV
The invention of smart televisions is one of the most recent developments in television. This television set is comparable to others, but it differs from them in that it must be linked to the internet.
The smart TV can access services like Netflix and Amazon Prime to stream content when connected to your home’s network. Standard televisions may be used for this purpose, but they require the use of an external device such as a set-up box or streaming stick.
Is TV’s Wattage a Major Contributor?
Although TVs consume a significant amount of energy, they only use a modest amount. If you’re concerned about energy efficiency, you should be focusing on your air conditioner, not the bad boys of energy consumption: your TV.
Let’s say you have a 40″ LED TV that needs 70 watts to operate. The average household in the United States watches 5 hours of television each day, and let’s just say you watch as well.
When we aggregate all of your TV viewing energy use, we get 350 watt-hours each day (70 watts X 5 hours) or 10.5 kilowatt-hours monthly (1,000 watt-hours = 1 kilowatt-hour).
With an average US household consuming around 900 kWh each month, this accounts for roughly 1.2% of your overall electricity use! Isn’t it a little less now?
What Influences the Wattage of a TV?
The power consumption of television is influenced by many factors, including the following:
Age of TV
The monthly electricity expense of our previous example would double if you had an older CRT model that needed 400 watts or more.
Size of TV
The greater the screen size of the TV, the more electricity it uses. A 15-inch LED TV screen uses as few as 15 watts, which helps you save a lot of money every day. A typical 30-inch LED TV consumes roughly 50 watts of power.
As a result, the size of your television display has an immediate influence on your energy expenses.
Screen Resolution
When it comes to power draw, a 40-inch or larger computer display results in an exponential increase. When you go from 24 inches to 40+ inches in size, the resolution of the display increases from 1080p to 4K.
To put things into perspective, 4K vs. 1080P makes a huge difference. So effectively, compared with 1080P, 4K is four times sharper.
However, this implies that the required amount of electricity to support such a high resolution on the display must be increased as well.
Display Type
When it comes to flat-panel displays, the terms “LCD,” “LED,” and “OLED” all imply that a device is energy-efficient. OLED has an edge over other technologies since it does not utilize light pixels that aren’t required.
This is why OLEDs can produce true blacks – you’re essentially seeing only a portion of the off-screen picture.
QLED panels, on the other hand, are said to be less power-hungry but with (nearly) the brightness of OLED displays without the potential screen burn-in.
In a nutshell, QLED will be the display technology that makes a substantial difference in how much energy is used; all the others are so close these days that it’s almost irrelevant.
Tips to Save Energy on TV
If you’re a climate-change warrior and aim to keep your energy consumption as low as possible, excellent! Here are some ideas for reducing TV energy consumption:
- Set the screen to minimum brightness: The backlight is by far the most power-consuming element of your television, and the lower you can make it, the less power it will use. Avoiding a bright backlight in a brightly lit or gloomy room may be beneficial.
- To conserve electricity, turn OFF the TV accessories. When you aren’t using your system, switch off all of its connections to the TV. For example, a home theater system or a DVD or Blu-ray player for PlayStation. In standby mode, each of them consumes electricity.
- Turn OFF always-ON features that you don’t use, such as voice control, point and change, and Bluetooth.
- If you’re looking to buy a new TV, make sure it has the Energy Star seal of approval. The Energy Star encourages energy conservation, including the labeling of high-efficiency electronics so that you know which ones are the most environmentally-friendly and cost-effective.
Conclusion
In the end, we conclude that the wattage of a TV is determined by many factors. The most important factor is the type of display, which can have a major impact on how much power your television consumes.
You should also be aware of other features that may increase or decrease the amount of electricity your TV uses. Plus, we discussed how you can calculate the wattage and we took a ride from the history of TVs to the present.
Furthermore, it’s a good idea to take some steps to reduce the power consumption of your TV, such as setting the screen brightness to a minimum and turning off unnecessary features.
Finally, when purchasing a new TV, be sure to look for the Energy Star label to ensure that you’re getting an energy-efficient product.
FAQs
How much electricity does a TV use?
It all depends on the type of television, the size of the screen, and how you use it. But with a little bit of effort, you can definitely reduce your TV’s power consumption.
On average, a TV uses about 100 watts of power. However, this number can range from 50 to 400 watts, depending on the factors mentioned above.
What is vampire energy?
Vampire energy is the electricity that devices use even when they are turned off. Many devices, such as TVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems, have a standby mode in which they consume electricity even when they’re not in use.
To save energy, unplug these devices or turn off their power strips when you’re not using them.
What is the most energy-efficient TV?
The most energy-efficient TVs are those that use the least amount of power per square inch of screen. OLED TVs are typically the most energy-efficient, followed by LCD and LED TVs.
However, there are many other factors to consider when choosing an energy-efficient TV, such as screen size and features.
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