Electricity consumption of TV sets jumps sharply with increasing screen diagonal.
An analysis of around 1,400 TVs, conducted by the consumer portals Verivox and Testberichte, and reported by the “Spiegel”, shows that while a 55-inch TV consumes an average of 109 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, an 85-inch TV already requires 245 kilowatt-hours. As a result, the annual electricity costs rise from 38 to 85 euros. The most energy-hungry TV in the survey even costs around 150 euros per year in electricity.
“Ten inches more increase the electricity costs by about a third on average” said Thorsten Storck, energy expert at Verivox. The differences are even higher in HDR mode, a display format with a wider color gamut, more contrast, and higher brightness, which many streaming services use. For a 55-inch TV, the electricity consumption increases by an average of 55% compared to the standard format, and for an 85-inch TV, it is more than twice as high.
If a TV is in use for ten years, the average additional electricity costs of a third of the purchase price will still be added on top. Therefore, when purchasing a new TV, one should not only look at the purchase price but also the energy label, said Jens Claaßen from Testberichte.