TV power consumption

NickK · 15 Mar 2019 at 13:03

Looked at our electricity consumption after the Mrs has highlighted we seem to spend a lot. Looking at the 7 day history it appears sat, sun, and the only day this week the Mrs was at home was high (£2.30/day vs 1.27 normal). This made me think - the only thing different was the TV.

We have an old 36” Samsung ~2009 model. 160W from morning to night (Mrs is the only one that watches it really).

So it got me thinking - what’s the best new TV that is low power. Although 36” fits our front tool perfectly it seems ~40” may be an option.

Thoughts/opinions?

hornetstinger · 15 Mar 2019 at 13:13

Guess led uses lower power than ccfl backlight or especially plasma

stuie · 15 Mar 2019 at 13:16

It wont be the tv.

at 160w even if its 20 hours of use thats only 3.6kwh at 20p per kwh thats only 72p

now 20p is a little on the high side for elec costs and assuming you sleep more the 4 hours a day my guess is its closer to half that cost also that 160w will be the max pull again in real world use probably a third of that again.

yes modern day LEDs would draw less but I would estimate the actual cost for a real day of running that tv is closer to 25p

NickK · 15 Mar 2019 at 13:21

Ok - found more info: http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...35605953/6Series_Power_consumption_LCD_TV.pdf

So 160W at the back, 115W consumption at 65% brightness as a standard model. Note that due to a buzzing defect in the screen regulator, it needs 20/20 set so I suspect that it's higher that 115W.

She may have increased the temps (CH pump running longer) and oven for breakfast would contribute. It still seems a high consumption for a TV (max 160W).

Looking at it, it seems a modern 40" LED uses 1/2 that.

hornetstinger · 15 Mar 2019 at 13:37

Maybe 50w difference between old ccfl and modern led TV?

NickK · 15 Mar 2019 at 13:59

hornetstinger said:
Maybe 50w difference between old ccfl and modern led TV?

Seems to be about 70W for modern, so I agree about 50W. So 50W for 8 hours is 0.4kWh. So yep, @14.14p/kWh that's only going to cover 6p difference at most.

wellibob · 15 Mar 2019 at 15:19

Make her watch a tablet (ipad or android) . Put a plug in wattage meter (about £14) on what you consider to be using too much electricity and note the readings. Older stuff and items you never thought would pull a lot often surprise you. Note.... Be extremely careful on how you monitor readings as you can become seriously paranoid about it. It will then ruin using anything electrical for the rest of your life

Oxide™ · 15 Mar 2019 at 15:34

Could be the kettle, washing machine too

hornetstinger · 15 Mar 2019 at 16:16

wellibob said:
Make her watch a tablet (ipad or android) . Put a plug in wattage meter (about £14) on what you consider to be using too much electricity and note the readings. Older stuff and items you never thought would pull a lot often surprise you. Note.... Be extremely careful on how you monitor readings as you can become seriously paranoid about it. It will then ruin using anything electrical for the rest of your life

Yeah like having krell 3000w class A monoblocs all round , all channels triamping

NickK · 15 Mar 2019 at 16:18

Oxide™ said:
Could be the kettle, washing machine too

Kettle is on the gas hob. Although she uses a coffee machine every day.

I have a MF A220 .. A biased.. so runs hot enough to fry eggs. Although not plugged in atm

Akagi · 15 Mar 2019 at 16:28

And all the other stuff which comes on along with the TV, Sky box is basically a rubbish computer, etc.

R4z0r · 15 Mar 2019 at 18:18

Have you looked at light bulbs? Switching to LED has an enormous effect. In my house, many of the fixings were using 90watts (light fitting with 3 30watt bulbs). LED bulbs are typically ~5 watt so as you can imagine, very big drop when they were replaced.

hornetstinger · 15 Mar 2019 at 20:42

Especially those tiny little guy bulbs, went from 90w per light to 9w. Plus brighter

Psycho Sonny · 16 Mar 2019 at 13:28

NickK said:
Ok - found more info: http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...35605953/6Series_Power_consumption_LCD_TV.pdf

So 160W at the back, 115W consumption at 65% brightness as a standard model. Note that due to a buzzing defect in the screen regulator, it needs 20/20 set so I suspect that it's higher that 115W.

She may have increased the temps (CH pump running longer) and oven for breakfast would contribute. It still seems a high consumption for a TV (max 160W).

Looking at it, it seems a modern 40" LED uses 1/2 that.

it's not the TV as we have already stated a TV uses about 50p per day if you were to watch it all day.

160W is nothing. electric showers, kettles, washing machines, ovens, electric fires / heating.

basically anything which has to heat air or water. that includes hair dryers, tumble dryers, microwaves, etc too.

those are the things which consume electric not a tv.

basically what you are suggesting is that you spend £500 to save 25p per day.

so you understand how long it would take for that to be a smart idea? 2000 days which is 5.5 years before you break even.

therefore buying a new tv to save electric is quite frankly the stupidest idea anyone could do. buy a new tv because you want a new tv not to save electric. if you want to save electric then stop consuming it by changing your light bulbs to LEDS. cheap led bulbs are available from screwfix. just buy the cheapest ones. as i have already shown spending £30 on something which consumes slightly less leccy than a 50p bulb would be idiotic. as by the time you break even the bulb will be dead.

Psycho Sonny · 16 Mar 2019 at 13:29

Acme said:
And all the other stuff which comes on along with the TV, Sky box is basically a rubbish computer, etc.

a sky box will be consuming next to nothing - the knowledge in this thread is lacking. it will be consuming 35W at best

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 17 Mar 2019 at 09:33

so what we are looking for is a mains powered device that your wife only uses when you aren’t at home mmmmmmm

andy_mk3 · 17 Mar 2019 at 09:43

=XDC=FluphyBunny said:
so what we are looking for is a mains powered device that your wife only uses when you aren’t at home mmmmmmm

Username checks out

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 17 Mar 2019 at 09:47

andy_mk3 said:
Username checks out

Oh, lol didn’t think about that.

GeorgeFell07 · 24 Oct 2021 at 15:29

The most optimal solution would be to buy a TV with a diagonal of 32" and with an LED screen since it will consume the least electricity. As soon as the diagonal and the screen itself change, the energy consumption also increases. Therefore, my 55" OLED TV consumes an average of 110-120 watts. The choice is yours of course. If you still need help, and cannot understand how much power does a TV use, read the article I linked.

lucid · 24 Oct 2021 at 20:40

GeorgeFell07 said:
Led tv uses less power but led lights break down often so you will spend money to replace them.

Bit of an old thread, this one, George. You replied to a last post from March 2019.