It is one of the first questions people ask when they are watching the pennies at home: how much is the television adding to the bill? We build our TVs in Britain, and we would rather you knew the real answer than guessed at it. Here is how to work out what your set costs to run, with figures you can check against your own bill, and a few simple ways to keep that number low.
What a modern TV actually uses
A modern LED television is a modest user of electricity. Power draw depends mostly on screen size and how bright the picture is set. As a rough guide, a small set of around 24 to 32 inches draws somewhere near 30 to 50 watts in normal use. A mid-size 40 to 50 inch 4K set sits closer to 70 to 120 watts. Bigger, brighter panels use more, and older plasma sets used far more again, which is part of why a new LED set can work out cheaper to run than the one it replaces.
The simple sum for running cost
You only need one calculation. Take the wattage, multiply by the hours you watch, divide by 1,000 to get units (kWh), then multiply by the price you pay per unit. Under the current Ofgem price cap, the electricity unit rate is 26.11 pence per kWh for 1 July to 30 September 2026, so we will use that.
Say you have a 100 watt TV on for four hours a day. That is 400 watt-hours, or 0.4 units. At 26.11p a unit, that is about 10p a day, roughly £3.20 a month, or close to £38 over a year. A smaller 40 watt set watched for the same four hours costs about 4p a day, nearer £15 a year. Swap in your own wattage, your own hours and the rate on your bill, and you have your figure. You can find your current unit rate on your energy statement or on the Ofgem price cap page.
Standby is small, but not nothing
Left on standby, a current TV draws very little, often under half a watt, so the old advice to switch everything off at the wall saves less than it once did. It still adds up across a house full of devices, so it is worth doing, but your viewing hours matter far more than standby.
Easy ways to keep the running cost down
A few small choices make the biggest difference:
-
Match the screen to the room. A large set in a kitchen or bedroom uses more power than you need. A smaller Cello is cheaper to run and often a better fit.
-
Turn the brightness down or use the eco or home picture mode. Shop-floor settings are brighter than most living rooms need.
-
Use built-in Freeview Play rather than a separate box. Every one of our Freeview Play TVs has it included, so there is no extra device drawing power under the telly.
-
Switch off overnight rather than leaving it on in the background.
When you want the lowest possible draw
If you are watching where power is precious, in a caravan, a campervan or off-grid, low-voltage sets change the maths completely. We make 12-volt and even solar-friendly televisions for exactly this. Our work on solar-powered TVs shows how far that can go. For the home, the honest answer is that a right-sized LED set costs very little to run.
The bottom line
For most homes, a television is one of the cheaper things you own to run. Buy the size you actually need, keep the brightness sensible, and the yearly cost stays low. Have a look across our smart TV range to find a set that suits your room, all designed and built in Britain.