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Saving Electricity

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Televisions / TV's

Mr. Electricity is your guide to saving energy in your home.

Saving Electricity 101:

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How much it costs / how they charge
What's a Watt / Kilowatt?
How much energy stuff uses
How to measure electrical use

We're recommended by the government of Berks County, PA.

Related sites:

Watt Watt. News about efficiency and conservation, written by readers of the site.

Home Power Magazine. All about renewable energy for the home.

Thin House. Blog about a family committed to cutting its energy use by 80%.

No-Impact Man. Blog about a family striving to have no net impact. (i.e., What little they use, they offset.) Inspirational.

Off-Grid. News and resources about living without being connected to a utility company.

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The Military Budget as Cookies

This excellent animation from TrueMajority shows in graphic detail (using Oreo cookies) how ridiculously, large the military budget is, and how we could solve many domestic problems with a modest 12% cut. A must-see. (watch it now)

Wattage for various TV's and sizes

LCD
Plasma
DLP
32"

125
(98-156)

125
(only one model, 125)
n/a
42"

210
(91-236)

270
(188-464)
n/a
50-56"

260
(210-322)

340
(191-474)

170
(150-206)

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How much electricity does my television use?

Most TV's use about 80 to 400 watts, depending on the size and technology. At the U.S. average of 12¢ per kilowatt-hour and five hours of viewing a day, that's $1.46 to $7.30/mo. ($18 to $88 per year) Below you'll find energy usage information for different models.

Before you obsess over how much electricity your TV is using, I want you to obsess over how much your heating, cooling, and lighting is using. TV energy use is a drop on the bucket for most people. TV's account for only 5% of home electrical use.1 You can save more money by attacking the real energy hogs first.

The easiest way to save energy with your TV is to turn it off. Does television really enrich your life? Nobody ever lies on their deathbed thinking, "I wish I'd watched more TV." I consider myself fortunate to have had a near-death experience, because it made me realize that I didn't want to waste the limited time I have on this planet on watching television. This isn't just my idea -- the idea that a television is a necessity is at an all-time low. (Pew Research, 2009)

You may have heard that the newer TV's are energy hogs. That's true, but it's not because of the new technology, it's because new TV's are bigger than the old ones. LCD's are actually more efficient than the old CRT's they're replacing. But when you double or triple the screen size, that's gonna take more power.

If you're getting a new TV, here's my basic advice:

  1. Get an Energy Star model. The U.S. government gives the Energy Star label to energy-efficient appliances. Energy Star-labeled TV's use about 30% less energy than other models. Happily about 75% of current models are already Energy Star-compliant. Get an Energy Star TV and you can't go wrong. In fact, California is considering banning all non-Energy Star TV's. (MSNBC, 2009) See the list of Energy Star TV's.
  2. For <50" get a LCD, for >50" get a DLP. LCD is more efficient at small sizes, DLP at larger sizes. And if getting a DLP, get a model that uses an LED light source, which uses even less energy than older DLP models, and which will save you from having to replace the bulb every 1-3 years.
  3. Think twice about plasma. Plasma sets are the worst of all, in terms of energy use. However, if you don't watch TV very much, then the extra energy use of plasma won't be significant.

Here's a rundown of the different kinds of TV's.

CRT. These are the big, bulky TV's and computer monitors from yesteryear. The tube is basically a big light bulb. They're not very energy efficient, but they use less energy than newer models because they tend to be smaller. A 19" TV uses about 80 watts, way less than just about any modern TV.

LCD. This is the same type of screen that goes in laptop computers and modern computer monitors. Much more efficient than CRT. They use about 125, 210, and 280 watts for the 32", 42", and 52" sizes respectively. Wide range of sizes, from 5" to 65". If you're getting a new TV, LCD is a good choice for models up to 50" in size. (For bigger than that, go DLP.)

DLP. Also called "rear-projection", but there's no "projector" that you can see -- it's a regular enclosed TV like any other. Only available in larger sizes (50"+), and efficient at that size (~175 watts for a 56" model). If you're getting a huge 50"+ TV, go for DLP, and get one with an LED light source (otherwise you'll have to replace the bulb every 1-3 years).

Plasma. Typical screen size 32"-60". Huge energy hogs. Plus, they generate lots of heat, which you'll be paying to remove with your AC. Not recommended (unless you watch such a small amount of TV that the extra energy usage isn't significant).

OLED. The most efficient of all, but not available in sizes greater than 11" until 2010, and even then will probably be pricey for a few years compared to LCD and DLP. (Sony's 11-incher costs $2500, but it uses up to 40" less energy than a 20" LCD). OLED's are also ridiculously, ridiculously thin. (more at an OLED website)

In terms of energy use, not all LCD's are equal, and not all DLP's are equal, and not all plasma TV's are equal, even at the same size. Even within a particular technology and size, the energy usage can vary greatly. So rather than going for a certain kind of technology, the easiest thing is to just look for the Energy Star label.

By now you're probably familiar with HDTV, but if not, it refers to TV's that can display very high quality pictures, and have a wide rectangular display rather than an old squarish one. All modern TV's are now HDTV, whether the insides are CRT, LCD, DLP, or Plasma.

Standy power isn't the problem it used to be. Manufacturers have gotten wise and the overwhelming majority of TV's made after 2006 draw less than 1 watt of power when they're plugged in and not running. That's less than 9¢/mo. at current average electric rates.

Make sure your TV isn't running in "store demo" mode, especially if you bought a floor model. The store demo mode is super-bright in order to do battle with the powerful ceiling lighting in electronics stores. But once you get home the extra brightness will likely just be annoying -- and energy-wasting, to the tune of an extra 5 to 27%.2 The setting you want is usually labeled something like "Movie", "Pro", or "Normal", and some plasma TV's even have an "Eco" setting (because plasma TV's are such energy hogs to begin with). The wasteful setting will say something like "Dynamic" or "Vivid. So if your TV is in the super-high brightness mode, you can save energy with it at the touch of a button.

 

TV's of note

  • Sony Bravia WE5 (42" LCD). This 2009 model not only uses way less energy in normal mode, it also senses when you leave the room and turns the picture off. Stay gone for 30 minutes and the whole thing powers down. Its standby mode barely sips any juice at all (0.17 watts), but if even that's too much for you can turn off standby with a special separate switch. This model was announced by Sony Europe, and I haven't been able to find out whether it will be available in the U.S. Unfortunately Americans don't demand energy-saving products as much as the Europeans do, which sometimes means that those products aren't sold here. (Sony Europe)

 

Television energy calculator

You wanted it, you got it. My TV energy calculator will tell you exactly how much energy your TV uses, and how much you're paying for it. If your model isn't listed, just choose "Don't know/generic" for the brand and you'll get a pretty close estimate. I do have an assistant working on adding hundreds of models to the list, so your model might show up here eventually.

TV energy use calculator

Brand:
Model size:
This model:
watts
Weekdays
Weekends
Electricity Rate

Cost
CO2 Pollution
Month
$
lbs.
Year
$
lbs.

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How much energy do cable boxes use?

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an HD cable set-top box uses about 45 watts of electricity. (source, PDF)

 

Footnotes & Sources:

(1) In 2004 TV's were 4% of home energy use, which was expected to grow to 6% by 2009. (NRDC, PDF)  But since 2004 TV's have gotten more efficieint so I think 5% is a safer number. TV's were 2.9% of home energy in 2001. (Dept. of Energy) In 2008 TV's accounted for 1% of total U.S. electricity consumption. (Efficient Products)

(2) Store demo mode 5-27% higher than normal mode (EfficientProducts.org)

Sources for TV wattage information. CNET has a good list of over 100 TV's and how much power they draw. It's where I got most of the model data for this page. (Others I got from manufacturers, or by direct measurement.) More Energy Savings also has a list, but the site is very slow and usually crashes my browser.

TV market info. This 2006 EPA report has lots of info such as the marketshare of each type of TV (CRT, LCD, etc.) per year, the energy-share of those TV's, how much energy can be saved via Energy Star standards, etc.

Top manufacturcers. In 2008 the top manufacturers of U.S.-sold TV's were Samsung Electronics, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, and LG Electronics. (China View)


Last updated: April 2009

©1998-2009 Michael Bluejay, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reprinting is prohibited
All advice is given in good faith. We're not responsible for any errors or omissions. Electricity can kill you; if you're not competent to work on your electrical wiring then hire a professional to do it.
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