In this guide, let us talk about an interesting but often less-talked topic of modern televisions; their power consumption.
A Brief Note TV
Since their invention and introduction to the public, Television Sets, or simply TVs have been a part of our lives. You can watch the news, TV Shows, Movies, and Sports. The penetration of TV into an average American home is what made the American TV industry so large. Today, we have several ways to consume media such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, computers, etc. But if you take the scene from a couple of decades ago, TV was the main source of entertainment for the whole family. Even though the number of people watching TV and the hours we watch TV in a day has decreased when compared, to say, a decade ago, the technological advancements in display technology, especially in TV Displays, have been quite amazing.
Types of TVs
Cathode Ray Tube TVs (or simply Tube TVs) are the first kind of mass-produced television sets. They also saw the change from monochrome displays to color displays. Then the major development came in the form of Plasma TVs. They are a type of flat-panel display. Then came LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) TVs. There are several types of LCDs depending on how we provide the backlight but the main display panel is more or less the same. The impact of LCD in the television and monitor industry has been huge. They have better image quality, higher resolution, and refresh rate, and importantly, they are flat and thin. All these and several other features of LCDs made them one of the highest-selling TV types. Earlier models of LCD TVs have cold cathode fluorescent lamps. But most modern LCD TVs have an LED Backlight. Apart from the backlight, the technological improvements in LCD Display Technology have been tremendous. Even today, LCD Displays with LED Backlight and several advanced display technologies such as IPS, Nano Cell, Quantum Dot, etc. are available at a reasonable cost, large screen sizes, and 4K (UHD) or even 8K resolutions. Nowadays, the main competitor to LCD TV is the OLED TV. It is a much superior display technology than LCD where the individual pixels light up instead of a backlight illuminating the display panel. OLED TVs also benefit from their self-emitting pixels. As we can control the color and power of individual pixels, we can get excellent contrast and deep blacks. Today, OLED TVs are still a luxury commodity as their price is significantly more than the same-sized LCD TV. LG was the main supplier of OLED Panels for all OLED TV manufacturers. But with Samsung entering OLED Panel manufacturing, we can expect the prices to fall in the coming years. LG and now Samsung are the only commercial OLED Panel makers as of now. There are several other types of TVs such as Mini LED TVs and Micro LED TVs which are yet to become popular in the market. Their production is still in its infancy. So, it will take some time to become mainstream.
Power Consumption of Modern Displays
Let us start from the beginning. CRT TVs are high power-consuming devices. Depending on the size of the screen CRT TV would consume anywhere between 100 to 150 watts. This number seems low but if you consider the screen size, then you will understand that this power consumption is two or three times that of a similar-sized LCD TV Next, we have arguably the highest power-consuming TVs, the Plasma TVs. They are one of the most power-hungry display devices. As they are available only in large display sizes, we can compare them with similarly large-sized LCD or OLED TVs. For instance, a 50” Plasma TV is a very popular screen. But it consumes somewhere around 300 watts. You read it right. Plasma TVs, even though they have better color reproduction and good brightness, are notorious for their power consumption numbers. Also, the cost of manufacturing a Plasma TV is very high. As a result, almost all Plasma TV production has now been discontinued. Many major TV manufacturers are focusing their line-up on LCD and OLED TVs. Speaking of LCD, as we mentioned earlier, the previous generation LCD had fluorescent lamps to provide the backlight. As a result, their power consumption is relatively high. But with the modern LCD TVs with LED Backlight, the power consumption numbers have fallen dramatically. If you take a 50” LCD TV with a CCFL backlight, it will consume anywhere between 140 to 160 watts. Now if we take a similar-sized LCD TV with LED Backlight, then the power consumption will be in the range of 90 to 100 watts. The main culprit in both types of LCD TVs i.e., CCFL backlit and LED backlit is the backlight system. If you set higher brightness levels on your LCD TV, then the power consumption will be higher. This applies to all kinds of LCD TVs. Last but not the least, we have beautiful OLED TVs. Power Consumption of OLED Display Panels (be it TVs, Smartphones, or anything else) is an interesting topic. Similar to LCD TVs, the power consumption of OLED TVs has a direct relation to the luminescence of the display. But in addition to that, we can also relate the power consumption to the image and the colors as well. If you recall, in an OLED TV, we have individual pixels lighting up in Red, Green, and Blue. Depending on the image, the intensity of these individual subpixels will vary. The important point here is each subpixel has a different level of power consumption. If we take the RGB subpixel format, then the power consumption is in the decreasing order of blue, red, and green.
How Many Watts Does a TV Use?
Till now, we saw an overview of the power consumption of different types of TVs. But it’s time to talk some real (or realistic) numbers and answer the question “How many watts does a TV use?”. For this, we will take some popular TVs from different manufacturers and take a look at their power consumption numbers. Note that we are quoting these numbers based on the manufacturer’s data. As you can see from the above table, the larger the screen size of a TV (in the same series), the higher power it consumes. To get accurate “watt” readings of your TV’s power consumption, we recommend a power meter such as a kill-a-watt device. Such devices have the provision for you to enter the tariff values so that they calculate the money you would be spending on the TV for electricity.
What Factors Affect the TV Power Consumption?
In the previous section, we saw the answer to the common question “how many watts does a TV use?”. But we can dig a little bit deeper and analyze the factors that contribute to the overall power consumption of the TV.
1. Type of TV
The first and most important factor is the type of TV you have. From the intro sections, it is clear that CRT and Plasma TVs consume more power than LCD and OLED TVs. So, if you are still rocking a CRT or Plasma TV in your home, then it is high time to change to a much more efficient LCD or OLED TV. Apart from efficient power consumption, you have the benefits of very good picture quality, large screen size, and even smart functionalities (this one is debatable).
2. Screen Size
Even if you choose an LCD or OLED TV, the power consumption can be higher for large screen sizes. If you see the example of the latest LG C2 OLED TV, the 77-inch variant draws about 160 watts while the 65-inch variant draws only 115 watts.
3. User Settings
Another important factor that has a huge impact on the power consumption of a TV is the display settings. First, we have the brightness. Whether it is an LCD TV or OLED TV, the higher the brightness, the more power it consumes. Next, if you watch a lot of HDR content, even then the power consumption increases. Most modern TVs have an “eco” mode or some sort of power-saving mode. If you enable this mode, then the TV automatically changes the display settings so that the power consumption is very economical.
Other Factors
Apart from these three, other factors such as the age of the TV, how often and how long you use the TV, if you use any Wi-Fi or plug external drives, etc. can also contribute to the overall power consumption of the TV.
1. Power Saving in Modern TVs
From the previous discussion, it is clear that the two major types of TV nowadays are LCD and OLED. They are efficient if you compare them to the previous generation’s Plasma and CRT TVs. Both these types of TVs employ several techniques to save power. Let us take a brief note on the power-saving aspect of both LCD and OLED TVs.
2. LCD TVs
If we are talking about LCD TVs in this day and age, then it usually means LCD Panels with LED Backlight. One of the main consumers of power in LCD TVs is, as you might have guessed, the LED Backlight. By proper scaling of the LED Backlight and the image luminance, we can display a good quality image with less power draw. The following is a list of some popular techniques that different manufacturers use to implement power saving in LCD TVs.
3. OLED TVs
We already touched on this topic before but here we go again. The power consumption of OLED TVs does not only depend on the brightness levels but also on the image or content on the screen. If you take a standard OLED Panel, it has three sub-pixels made up of Red, Green, and Blue. These three sub-pixels illuminate at different intensities to generate all the colors of the pixel. Of the three, the Blue sub-pixels consume the most power which is almost two times that of the Green sub-pixel. Coming to the Red sub-pixel has a typical power consumption between the Blue and Green sub-pixels. So, the power-saving techniques for OLED TV generally involve fiddling with the colors and pixels.
Conclusion
Despite the penetration of smartphones and tablets, TVs still stand strong in the home entertainment department, thanks to their large screen sizes, excellent picture quality, and the ability to watch cable, satellite, or streaming content. Modern TVs are very power efficient where both LCD and OLED TVs work at very low power levels. Speaking of power, have you ever wondered how many watts does a TV use? If yes, then you are not alone as TV can be a major consumer of power. In this guide, we saw the basics of TV and also some popular types of TV. After that, we saw the typical power consumption of CRT, Plasma, LCD, and OLED TVs. Then, we answered the “how many watts does a TV use” question by taking a look at the power consumption numbers from some popular TVs spread across multiple manufacturers. We even looked at the factors that influence the overall power consumption of the TV and finally, as a bonus, we made a technical discussion on different power-saving schemes that TV manufacturers implement. We hope that this guide helped you in understanding the power consumption aspect of modern TVs. If you feel we missed something or want us to add anything, do let us know in the comments section. It will not only help us but even other readers. Comment * Name * Email * Website
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