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How much does it cost to run a TV?

Work out what any appliance costs to run per use, per month and per year on your own electricity rate — including what it draws on standby. Rates for all 50 states.

Showing US rates
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Using the US average of 18.44¢/kWh — the U.S. Energy Information Administration, May 2026.

A 55-inch LED set watched four hours a day. Screen size and panel technology move the first number more than anything else on this page.

Rates vary widely across US — picking yours makes the answer far closer.
Wattage is on the rating plate or in the manual. Washing machines and dishwashers usually quote kWh per cycle instead.
Usage
W
min
kWh
Your tariff
¢/kWh
On your bill or in your online account. If you do not know it, the average for your area is filled in already.
W
Leave at 0 if you unplug it. Most things with a clock, light or remote draw 0.5–3 W.
Cost per use $0.07
Cost per year $27.66
Cost per month $2.30
Energy per use 0.4 kWh
Energy per year 150 kWh
Of which standby $0.81

Common cases

What drives the cost

Televisions have quietly become one of the cheaper things in the room to run. A 55-inch LED set draws around 80 to 120 W in normal use, against 300 W or more for a plasma of the same size fifteen years ago. Four hours a day of viewing is a few pounds a month rather than a line item worth worrying about.

Two things still change the answer. Screen technology matters more than size: OLED panels draw power roughly in proportion to how bright the image is, so a dark film costs less than a bright sports broadcast, while LED sets are much flatter across content. And the picture mode matters more than most people realise — a set left in the shop-floor 'vivid' or 'dynamic' preset can use half again as much as the same set in a normal or filmmaker mode, for a picture most people prefer anyway.

How this is worked out

Electricity is billed per kilowatt hour. An appliance's kilowatt hours are its power in kilowatts multiplied by the hours it runs — so a 2,000 W appliance running for 30 minutes uses 1 kWh. Multiply that by your rate and you have the cost. The fixed monthly customer charge your utility adds is not included, because you pay it whether or not you switch anything on.

What this assumes

  • The appliance draws its rated power for the whole time it is on. Anything thermostatically controlled — ovens, heaters, refrigerators, air conditioners — cycles on and off, so the real figure is lower.
  • Your rate is flat all day. On a time-of-use plan the same appliance costs materially different amounts depending on when you run it, and peak rates can be several times the off-peak rate.
  • State averages come from the EIA and blend every utility in that state. Your own utility may be meaningfully above or below it, so use your bill where you can.
  • A year is 52 weeks of identical use, which overstates seasonal appliances and understates ones you use in bursts.
  • The rate filled in for you is an average that spreads fixed charges across a year's usage, so it sits above what one extra unit really costs. Entering the unit rate from your own bill gives a closer answer.

Questions

Does screen size change the running cost much?

Less than you would guess within a technology, and more than you would guess across one. Going from 43 to 65 inches on the same LED technology is maybe a 60% increase in consumption; going from LED to a large OLED or an old plasma changes it far more. Panel type is the bigger lever.

Does turning the TV off at the wall save much?

A little, and less than it used to. Modern sets are limited to around half a watt on standby, which is well under a pound a year. It becomes worth doing when the television is part of a stack — a console, a soundbar, a set-top box and a streaming stick together are a different proposition, which is what the standby page is about.

Does this include the monthly service charge?

No, deliberately. The fixed customer charge is billed for being connected at all, so it does not change when you run an appliance more or less. Including it would make every appliance look more expensive than it is.

Why is the default rate different from what I pay?

The figure filled in is the EIA state average across all utilities in your state. Rates inside a single state can vary widely between a municipal utility and an investor-owned one, so your bill is always the better number.

Where do I find the wattage?

On the nameplate — usually a label on the back, base or inside the door — or in the manual. It is written as W or kW. If it only lists amps, multiply amps by 120 for a standard outlet, or 240 for a large appliance circuit.

Sources

Rates from U.S. EIA for May 2026. Last reviewed September 3, 2026.