Real-world TV power consumption
Discussion
Have any of you lot monitored TV power consumption with a smart plug or similar to gauge real-world power use?
I have an old 42" 1080p Panasonic plasma - must be over 10 years old now but still going fine, nice picture quality (more natural looking than most modern LCD/LED TVs I've seen) though obviously 4k would be a tad sharper. Not as bright as newer LED TV's, but its in a fairly dark lounge and mostly used at night anyway so that's not a problem.
Anyway (back on topic) I've read plenty of comments making a big deal about how power hungry plasmas are compared to LED or OLED, even suggesting the difference in power use is enough to justify the cost of a new TV. Obviously when I do update it the replacement won't be a plasma as they don't sell them anymore, but it made me curious.
My power company has been handing out free smart plugs lately as a gimmick, so I thought why not use that to check how much power the old plasma actually uses.
My results, in normal use watching TV or movies etc it is averaging around 100w consumption.
How does that compare to others?
It works out to be a pretty insignificant power cost in the scheme of things, I'm trying to understand why some people make such a fuss about it.
I have an old 42" 1080p Panasonic plasma - must be over 10 years old now but still going fine, nice picture quality (more natural looking than most modern LCD/LED TVs I've seen) though obviously 4k would be a tad sharper. Not as bright as newer LED TV's, but its in a fairly dark lounge and mostly used at night anyway so that's not a problem.
Anyway (back on topic) I've read plenty of comments making a big deal about how power hungry plasmas are compared to LED or OLED, even suggesting the difference in power use is enough to justify the cost of a new TV. Obviously when I do update it the replacement won't be a plasma as they don't sell them anymore, but it made me curious.
My power company has been handing out free smart plugs lately as a gimmick, so I thought why not use that to check how much power the old plasma actually uses.
My results, in normal use watching TV or movies etc it is averaging around 100w consumption.
How does that compare to others?
It works out to be a pretty insignificant power cost in the scheme of things, I'm trying to understand why some people make such a fuss about it.
A lac of emperical data is why they make a fuss I would imagine.
Might make a difference if left on hours and hours in a day but for the average person watching a bit of TV of an evening it won't really make much difference.
This tool will give a rough guide of costs for LED and OLED:
https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/led-oled-power-con...
Might make a difference if left on hours and hours in a day but for the average person watching a bit of TV of an evening it won't really make much difference.
This tool will give a rough guide of costs for LED and OLED:
https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/led-oled-power-con...
I have the socket my tv and associated plugs into power monitored and reporting to Home Assistant.
135w with just the TV and surround sound on, and a fraction of an Amp. Cheap TCL LCD and an older Logitech surround system
If the kids have the xbox going it's 300/350w, still less than the 400/450w of the PC. Sometimes both are going and I stop looking at the stats
135w with just the TV and surround sound on, and a fraction of an Amp. Cheap TCL LCD and an older Logitech surround system
If the kids have the xbox going it's 300/350w, still less than the 400/450w of the PC. Sometimes both are going and I stop looking at the stats
GravelBen said:
Have any of you lot monitored TV power consumption with a smart plug or similar to gauge real-world power use?
I have an old 42" 1080p Panasonic plasma - must be over 10 years old now but still going fine, nice picture quality (more natural looking than most modern LCD/LED TVs I've seen) though obviously 4k would be a tad sharper. Not as bright as newer LED TV's, but its in a fairly dark lounge and mostly used at night anyway so that's not a problem.
Anyway (back on topic) I've read plenty of comments making a big deal about how power hungry plasmas are compared to LED or OLED, even suggesting the difference in power use is enough to justify the cost of a new TV. Obviously when I do update it the replacement won't be a plasma as they don't sell them anymore, but it made me curious.
My power company has been handing out free smart plugs lately as a gimmick, so I thought why not use that to check how much power the old plasma actually uses.
My results, in normal use watching TV or movies etc it is averaging around 100w consumption.
How does that compare to others?
It works out to be a pretty insignificant power cost in the scheme of things, I'm trying to understand why some people make such a fuss about it.
100w is less than my 42 Panasonic LED uses. Have you got 'eco mode' or something enabled? Would explain your low brightness comments as well?I have an old 42" 1080p Panasonic plasma - must be over 10 years old now but still going fine, nice picture quality (more natural looking than most modern LCD/LED TVs I've seen) though obviously 4k would be a tad sharper. Not as bright as newer LED TV's, but its in a fairly dark lounge and mostly used at night anyway so that's not a problem.
Anyway (back on topic) I've read plenty of comments making a big deal about how power hungry plasmas are compared to LED or OLED, even suggesting the difference in power use is enough to justify the cost of a new TV. Obviously when I do update it the replacement won't be a plasma as they don't sell them anymore, but it made me curious.
My power company has been handing out free smart plugs lately as a gimmick, so I thought why not use that to check how much power the old plasma actually uses.
My results, in normal use watching TV or movies etc it is averaging around 100w consumption.
How does that compare to others?
It works out to be a pretty insignificant power cost in the scheme of things, I'm trying to understand why some people make such a fuss about it.
GravelBen said:
Have any of you lot monitored TV power consumption with a smart plug or similar to gauge real-world power use?
I have an old 42" 1080p Panasonic plasma - must be over 10 years old now but still going fine, nice picture quality (more natural looking than most modern LCD/LED TVs I've seen) though obviously 4k would be a tad sharper. Not as bright as newer LED TV's, but its in a fairly dark lounge and mostly used at night anyway so that's not a problem.
Anyway (back on topic) I've read plenty of comments making a big deal about how power hungry plasmas are compared to LED or OLED, even suggesting the difference in power use is enough to justify the cost of a new TV. Obviously when I do update it the replacement won't be a plasma as they don't sell them anymore, but it made me curious.
My power company has been handing out free smart plugs lately as a gimmick, so I thought why not use that to check how much power the old plasma actually uses.
My results, in normal use watching TV or movies etc it is averaging around 100w consumption.
How does that compare to others?
It works out to be a pretty insignificant power cost in the scheme of things, I'm trying to understand why some people make such a fuss about it.
I have exactly the same as you, a 10 year old 1080p Panny Plasma, it's rated 275W but in use it uses between about 120W - 200W depending on how bright the picture is. Using it with Spotify on the Shield it sits at about 130W. I have the optical output going into a DAC that goes into the hifi amp so I can listen to Spotify, I looked into replacing that with some kind of streamer unit but the cost of a decent one would far outweigh the savings in electricity I would get.I have an old 42" 1080p Panasonic plasma - must be over 10 years old now but still going fine, nice picture quality (more natural looking than most modern LCD/LED TVs I've seen) though obviously 4k would be a tad sharper. Not as bright as newer LED TV's, but its in a fairly dark lounge and mostly used at night anyway so that's not a problem.
Anyway (back on topic) I've read plenty of comments making a big deal about how power hungry plasmas are compared to LED or OLED, even suggesting the difference in power use is enough to justify the cost of a new TV. Obviously when I do update it the replacement won't be a plasma as they don't sell them anymore, but it made me curious.
My power company has been handing out free smart plugs lately as a gimmick, so I thought why not use that to check how much power the old plasma actually uses.
My results, in normal use watching TV or movies etc it is averaging around 100w consumption.
How does that compare to others?
It works out to be a pretty insignificant power cost in the scheme of things, I'm trying to understand why some people make such a fuss about it.
budgie smuggler said:
100w is less than my 42 Panasonic LED uses. Have you got 'eco mode' or something enabled? Would explain your low brightness comments as well?
Power use jumps above that when the scene is bright, lots of white on the screen etc - it shows brief spikes up towards 195w which is its nominal power rating. Darker movie scenes draw less,often 60-80w. Powered on but displaying a uniform black screen (when I left it on with a laptop connected via HDMI and the laptop went to sleep) it was drawing a steady 47w.No eco mode enabled, but I'll re-check the settings in case it has turned something like that on without me realising.
I wouldn't say its dull / dark, just not as bright as an LED TV (which seems normal with plasmas, even when they were new). Obviously being a plasma its more reflective when light hits it too.
To be fair its not powering audio, just picture - the smart plug is only on the tv itself at the moment, not the whole system with AV receiver etc. So there would be some difference there.
I do this by accident as the smart plugs I bought and have my tv unit plugged into also do power monitoring, so I have a home assistant dashboard set up for it!
TCL 50" cheap android 4k LCD and my ancient Logitech surround sound use 130w when in use, 7w in standby.
Add the xbox into the mix and it goes up alot more though.
Got rid of my plasma long before I got the plugs but I could hear it warm up when it turned on so it can't have sipped it...
TCL 50" cheap android 4k LCD and my ancient Logitech surround sound use 130w when in use, 7w in standby.
Add the xbox into the mix and it goes up alot more though.
Got rid of my plasma long before I got the plugs but I could hear it warm up when it turned on so it can't have sipped it...
I had a very similar TV to the OP until a year or two ago. As someone else has already said, it was like a second radiator in the room - it had extractor fans mounted in the top of the case and you could feel a steady stream of really quite warm air blowing upwards all the time it was on.
I stuck it on eBay and got a surprising amount for it, I forget the actual price but it made a reasonable dent in the cost of the Samsung LED that replaced it, which paid for a basic soundbar as the built-in speakers weren't much cop in the TV.
Our TV is (or was at the time) on for a good chunk of the day, with the missus at home with young kids. Probably 6 hours at day, at about 350W (measured via smart plug, which was what brought my attention to it) is just under 2kWh per day. Depends on electricity price of course, but 50p a day adds up really fast = £15 a month, £180 a year. New one is sharply lower.
I stuck it on eBay and got a surprising amount for it, I forget the actual price but it made a reasonable dent in the cost of the Samsung LED that replaced it, which paid for a basic soundbar as the built-in speakers weren't much cop in the TV.
Our TV is (or was at the time) on for a good chunk of the day, with the missus at home with young kids. Probably 6 hours at day, at about 350W (measured via smart plug, which was what brought my attention to it) is just under 2kWh per day. Depends on electricity price of course, but 50p a day adds up really fast = £15 a month, £180 a year. New one is sharply lower.
Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff