📺What does a television cost to run?

✓ Tested & verified Updated: Aug 8, 2026 How we calculate this

TV running cost

Appliance

Power it draws (watts)

Hours a day

Days a week

Country

Your price per kWh

$2.33 a month ≈ $27.92 a year

That is 0.45 kWh a day · $0.08 a day · $0.02 an hour while it runs

Electricity used a year: 164 kWh
Cost a week: $0.54
Cost a year: $27.92

Screen size and brightness matter more than the badge. A 43-inch LED is about 60 W, a 55-inch 90 W, a 65-inch 120 W — and a bright showroom picture setting can add half again.

Try also

How much does it cost to run a television?

A 55-inch LED television at 90 W costs about $0.08 for a five-hour evening at $0.17 per kWh — £0.11 at £0.25, €0.16 at €0.35. Every evening for a year is $28, £41, or €57.

Televisions are among the cheapest appliances in the house to run, and they have got dramatically cheaper: a plasma from 2010 could draw 300 W, where an equivalent LED today is 90. The variables that remain are size — power scales roughly with screen area — and brightness, where a set left on its shop-floor picture mode can use half again what the same set uses in a normal living-room setting.

Worth knowing: the box under the television is often the more expensive appliance. A set-top box or DVR can draw 15–30 W around the clock, which is 130–260 kWh a year against the television’s 160. The screen you watch for five hours and the box you never switch off end up in the same range.

Five hours a day, every day, for a year — the whole living room rather than just the screen.

Device	Draw	Hours a day	kWh a year	At $0.17	At £0.25	At €0.35
43-inch LED	60 W	5	110	$19	£27	€38
55-inch LED	90 W	5	164	$28	£41	€57
65-inch LED / OLED	120 W	5	219	$37	£55	€77
Soundbar	35 W	5	64	$11	£16	€22
Set-top box, always on	20 W	24	175	$30	£44	€61
Console in rest mode	12 W	24	105	$18	£26	€37

Compare the last two rows with the second. The things nobody switches off cost as much as the thing everybody watches — which is the argument for the standby calculator rather than for a smaller television.

Frequently asked questions

Does screen size change the electricity much?

Roughly with area. A 43-inch LED is about 60 W, a 55-inch 90 W, a 65-inch 120 W and a 75-inch 150 to 200 W. Going up two sizes roughly doubles the draw, though it is still small compared with anything that makes heat.

Is an OLED more expensive to run than an LED?

It depends on what is on screen. OLED pixels emit their own light, so a dark film uses very little and a bright snow scene at full brightness can exceed a comparable LED. Averaged over normal viewing they land close together, with HDR content pushing OLED higher.

How much does a TV cost on standby?

Under a watt on any modern set — pennies a year, and not worth unplugging. What is worth checking is the quick-start or instant-on setting, which keeps more of the electronics awake and can take standby from under 1 W to 10 or 15.

Do picture settings really change the cost?

Yes, more than anything else on a given set. Shop demo modes run the backlight at maximum to look good under fluorescent lighting; at home that is unnecessary brightness and can be half again the power. Turning the backlight down to a comfortable level in a normal room is the one adjustment with a measurable effect.

What about the soundbar and the console?

Add them. A soundbar is 20 to 50 W in use and a few on standby; a games console left in rest mode can be 10 to 15 W around the clock. The screen is usually the smallest number in an entertainment setup once everything else is counted.

Is it cheaper to watch on a laptop or tablet?

Considerably, in pure electricity: a laptop is 30 to 60 W and a tablet under 10, against 90 for a television. Over a year of daily viewing the difference is $20 to $30 — real, but rarely the reason anybody chooses a screen.

How we calculate this

Cost is watts × hours ÷ 1,000 × your price per kWh, with a month taken as 30.44 days. The preset of 90 W is a typical 55-inch LED at normal living-room brightness, shown with a 50–150 W range; actual draw depends on panel technology, screen size, brightness setting and content, and a plug-in monitor is the accurate answer for a given set. Standby is not included in the main figure — modern sets draw under 1 W in true standby, but quick-start modes can be 10–15 W and belong in the standby calculator. Peripherals such as set-top boxes, soundbars and consoles are separate appliances and should be counted separately.

Worked example

With Appliance Television (55-inch LED), Power it draws (watts) 90, Hours a day 5, Days a week 7, Country United States (USD), Your price per kWh 0.17, this page works out $2.33 a month ≈ $27.92 a year. That is 0.45 kWh a day · $0.08 a day · $0.02 an hour while it runs

Electricity used a year164 kWh
Cost a week$0.54
Cost a year$27.92

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