What’s The Best TV For Your Electricity Bill?
Did your TV get fried in a recent storm? Lightning strikes cause over $1.3 billion dollars in damage across the US every year. If you’re in the market for a new screen, you might be asking yourself how much electricity does a TV use?
Type And Size Matters
You may think that upgrading to a larger, but modern tv will save you money. You’re not wrong, but remember that there are a lot of different types of TVs now. Compared to just ten years ago, there are now a wider variety of screen types and sizes available. That includes curved screens, 4k screens, 8k screens, smart TVs, and more. The selection can be both dazzling and confusing. So, let’s run through the four basic types of TVs.
What Are You Upgrading From?
Your actual energy savings will depend on what you’re upgrading from.
CRT TVs — Short for Cathode Ray Tube, these types of TVs began in the 1930s and used a heavy glass tube to show analog images. These TVs tended to be heavy, hot, and used hundreds of watts of power to produce only 480 lines of resolution (versus today’s HD digital standard using pixels).
Plasma TVs — these TVs use plasma (electrically charged gas) inside thousands of small cells to create color and images. While these sets delivered high contrast and vivid colors, they also used a lot of electricity. They also created a heat which shortened the lifespan of the TV. Sets larger than 50″ tend use 300 watts or more. For these reasons, plasma TVs are no longer made.
LCD TVs — LCD TVs work by electronically controlling liquid crystals. These rotate polarized light to switch pixels on or off. Originally, LCD TVs used cold-cathode fluorescent lamps to back light the screen. But in time, LEDs replaced the fluorescent lamps.
LED TVs — Believe or not, these are really just LCD TVs that use LEDs for back lighting and pass that light through layers of filters. The advantage is that these TVs can be thinner, use less electricity, and cost much less at the store.
OLED TVs — stands for ‘Organic Light-Emitting Diode’. Each pixel uses two conductors that pass electricity through a carbon-based film to emit light. Because the TV’s microprocessor can control each pixel individually, there’s more subtle variations to images. Plus, viewing angles are better. These TV are not only thinner but more energy efficient. QLED TVs take this a step smaller by using nanocrystals and micro-LEDs that produce more colors and stunningly high resolutions.
Which TV Saves The Most Electricity?
Most high resolution OLED and QLED TVs are 4K resolution. That is, the TV has 3,840 horizontal pixels and 2,160 vertical pixels, for a total of about 8.3 million pixels. On average, a 4K 42 inch screen will cost you around $100 per year. In contrast, a standard HD resolution of 1920×1080 pixels with the same size screen consumes about half that amount of energy annually.
Sure, $40 to $50 a year isn’t going to break your electricity bill. But it depends on your budget and if your really want the higher resolution. Of course, you can add in some other energy saving tricks, and you might see substantial savings.
Save On Your Electricity Bill
Use this opportunity to shop around for some more electricity-saving upgrades. Energy efficient appliances and electronics are everywhere. And if you’re looking to save even more on your electricity, shop around for a new rate. You can find rates all over Ohio at www.ohenergyratings.com