OTish: TV power consumption

My new 55 inch: 225W maximum, 85W typical Most new TV seem to be rated F or G (new electrical power rating scale)

Usually the factory settings are set so the backlight is running full blast. You might turn that down a bit. Just don't expect to be saving a lot of power.

A newer set might drop the power to about half of your current number. There's some room for improvement. This is not exactly the best sampling of sets.

Paul

Thanks for the link. Clearly tech has moved on a bit. Our TV is about 15 years old now.

Tim

More to the point there are two things to ask. On standby, what is the wattage then, as most tvs spend most of their lives in this mode, its what you need to look at. The wattage while showing a picture sounds reasonable, as it has to generate light to be able to be seen. You can trim a bit using different display technologies. The most power hungry being plazma, and those using leds that only light up where the screen is light are probably the best, but even so most scenes need to be lit in some way, as the dynamic range of the scenes are always compressed somewhat so you can actually see what is going on in the shadows. Then we have sound, given a decent sound system this could be outputting on an average TV, 10 or moor watts a channel, probably more if you use a surround sound system as well and like realistic sound. I think I'd only be worried if equipment not actually operating were using a lot of juice. Some of the early DAB radios when run on their wall warts actually used more power in the psu than it did in the radio. Pure were particularly bad as they used an analogue brick with a series regulator and a very cheap transformer. Brian

Whatever that may mean in real terms. Sounds like they compare tvs with fridges. Brian

Interestingly toward the end of the CRT era, they had got even their consumption down a lot. He did not say what the display tech is and as you say changing the brightness can make it abit less but usually the picture suffered, though the dark areas were darker. Then they started smaller patches of illumination controllable by the system and of course the most expensive now use leds throughout. I have noticed though that flat screen tvs seem to suffer a lot when transported after they have been used in one position. Its not unusual to find dead pixels or rows of pixels stuck on or vertical lines going black, mostly due to the tiny ribbons inside getting brittle as they age. Myself I do not see this, but I'm told it does happen. Brian

bought a couple of those years ago...sent one to Harry Bloomfield....have to dig them out...good idea timmy baby

But when you purchase a new TV the power consumption may be you last consideration in the list.

I've just replaced a flat panel TV purchased in 2008 with a 4K QLED (LCD) with quantum mini LED technology and the difference in picture quality between the two sets is like chalk and cheese. It's a pity that what is broadcast hasn't improved.

When replacing a TV you may be selecting improved picture quality and maybe the all the bells and whistles of a smart TV rather than worrying too much about the power consumption. On a modern TV turning off the features that you may not use could save power.

I also have a surround sound amp and this probably takes more power than the TV as would a sound bar used to improve the TV sound take more power. I have a remote controlled mains plug that turns off all my under TV equipment (except the PVR) when not in use.

According to the manual, my old TX-37LZD85 has an average power use of

I use a 32 inch Iiyama WXGA monitor for watching TV and that only seems to use about 50 watts.

And people thought the market for larger flat screen TV's had 'matured'. Once people get to realise that a Flat screen TV more than

I'm surprised Mr shouty, Martin Lewis hasn't switched from nagging people to switch to a new energy supplier, to nagging people to get a newer (and smaller) TV and Fridge.

What about heating the sitting room. I recently replaced my monitor and was shocked at how little heat it kicks out.

I did buy a new freezer this summer. Energy usage dropped from 1.1 kWh/day to about 0.4. I'll probably get a new fridge too.

We bought a Beko fridge/freezer 10 years ago and are very satisfied with it.

Just remember that this energy is helping to heat the room so its not exactly wasted except during the summer !

Not as power hungry as a plasma, but modern LCD's are even more economical than the earlier ones - or much larger screen for the same power.

What I did was replaced the old plasma with a smart LCD, and relegated the plasma to a less used bedroom, then eventually replaced all the sets with smart TV's, even though little used ones. I then gave the plasma away.

Payback, depends on how long you use them for.

Can you still buy dumb TVs? Every time I visit someone with a smart TV more than a few years old they seem to have lost functionality and seem really clunky to use. I’d far rather replace ours with a dumb TV (if there was a significant cost saving) and carry on with my Humax and Firestick.

Tim

That will be a monitor then. Our TV might as well have no tuner - it is used for cable (via cable box) and online stuff (via Raspberry Pi).

I have to visit my friend who has three TVs spare in his garage. They work, but not to modern standards. I want them as monitors. They are cheaper than monitors / Like free.

Now I have a TV dongle in my server, live off air TV cones via a browser on the network

Must get an HD capable one and fit a satellite dish sometime.