How Much Does It Cost to Run a 55-Inch TV?
Based on a 80 W 55-inch tv running 5 hours a day with a 100% duty cycle, priced at the 2025 EIA residential average for every state. Change the state and hours below for your own number.
Updated Oct 16, 2026
Quick answer
Quick answer, US average (17.3 c/kWh)
About $2.08 a month
The same use costs $1.42 a month in North Dakota and $4.87 in Hawaii.
- Per hour
- $0.014
- at 80 W
- Per day
- $0.069
- 5 h, 0.40 kWh
- Per month
- $2.08
- 30 days
- Per year
- $25.26
- 365 days at the same use
Your state, your hours
Per hour
$0.014
Per day
$0.069
Per month
$2.08
Per year
$25.26
55-Inch TV at 80 W, 5 h a day, 30 days a month, 100% duty cycle: 12.0 kWh a month. Using the 2025 US average of 17.3 cents/kWh.
Want to change the watts or duty cycle too? Open the full calculator.
What decides the cost of running a 55-inch tv
Brightness sets most of the draw on a current 55 inch LED or QLED television, which uses 60 to 110 W while it is on. The 80 W default here is a mid-range 4K set at a normal living room brightness. The same set in its 'vivid' or 'store' picture mode with the backlight at maximum can draw 150 W. In 'movie' or 'eco' mode with the backlight at half, it draws 50 W. HDR content pushes the backlight up and can briefly double the draw. OLED panels follow the picture, because every pixel is its own light. A dark scene might draw 50 W and a bright white screen 200.
At 5 hours a day, 80 W is about 0.4 kWh a day, 12 kWh a month, which is one of the smallest loads on this list. The number only becomes interesting when the TV is on far more than it is watched. A set that runs 12 hours a day as background in a kitchen or an office is 29 kWh a month. The quick way to see how bright you have it is to look at the energy or eco settings menu, where most sets now report an estimate.
Standby is a few watts on a modern TV, often under 1 W, but the gear around it may not be. A cable box or DVR can draw 15 to 30 W all the time, a soundbar 5 to 15 W on standby, a game console in 'instant on' 10 to 15 W. The box under the TV is frequently a bigger annual cost than the TV itself. A power strip that cuts the accessories when the TV turns off solves this, provided the DVR does not need to record.
On the EnergyGuide label, a 55 inch set is rated around 80 to 150 kWh a year on the assumption of 5 hours a day, which lines up with the figures here. Larger sets scale roughly with screen area. A 65 inch set draws about 40 percent more and a 75 inch about 85 percent more.
How to cut it
- Turn off vivid mode and lower the backlight. That halves the draw and improves the picture in a dim room.
- Enable the ambient light sensor so the set dims itself in the evening.
- Put the cable box, soundbar and console on a switched strip. Together they often cost more to run than the TV.
- Use the sleep timer if the TV is on as background noise.
55-Inch TV cost by state
Monthly cost for 80 W, 5 h a day, 100% duty cycle, 30 days, sorted cheapest to most expensive. Pick your state above to highlight it.
| Rank | State | Cents/kWh | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | 11.81 | $1.42 |
| 2 | Idaho | 11.82 | $1.42 |
| 3 | Nebraska | 12.34 | $1.48 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 12.57 | $1.51 |
| 5 | Arkansas | 12.84 | $1.54 |
| 6 | Montana | 12.98 | $1.56 |
| 7 | Utah | 13.07 | $1.57 |
| 8 | Washington | 13.11 | $1.57 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 13.12 | $1.57 |
| 10 | Nevada | 13.15 | $1.58 |
| 11 | Tennessee | 13.18 | $1.58 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 13.24 | $1.59 |
| 13 | South Dakota | 13.38 | $1.61 |
| 14 | Wyoming | 13.38 | $1.61 |
| 15 | Missouri | 13.49 | $1.62 |
| 16 | Iowa | 13.72 | $1.65 |
| 17 | North Carolina | 14.02 | $1.68 |
| 18 | Mississippi | 14.03 | $1.68 |
| 19 | Kansas | 14.56 | $1.75 |
| 20 | Georgia | 14.73 | $1.77 |
| 21 | South Carolina | 14.96 | $1.80 |
| 22 | New Mexico | 15.08 | $1.81 |
| 23 | Florida | 15.24 | $1.83 |
| 24 | Virginia | 15.28 | $1.83 |
| 25 | Arizona | 15.32 | $1.84 |
| 26 | Oregon | 15.37 | $1.84 |
| 27 | West Virginia | 15.41 | $1.85 |
| 28 | Texas | 15.47 | $1.86 |
| 29 | Minnesota | 15.82 | $1.90 |
| 30 | Colorado | 15.85 | $1.90 |
| 31 | Alabama | 16.10 | $1.93 |
| 32 | Indiana | 16.23 | $1.95 |
| 33 | Ohio | 16.96 | $2.04 |
| 34 | Delaware | 17.13 | $2.06 |
| 35 | Illinois | 17.69 | $2.12 |
| 36 | Wisconsin | 18.16 | $2.18 |
| 37 | Pennsylvania | 19.30 | $2.32 |
| 38 | Maryland | 19.48 | $2.34 |
| 39 | Michigan | 20.01 | $2.40 |
| 40 | District of Columbia | 21.94 | $2.63 |
| 41 | New Jersey | 22.63 | $2.72 |
| 42 | Vermont | 22.92 | $2.75 |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 24.56 | $2.95 |
| 44 | Alaska | 26.09 | $3.13 |
| 45 | New York | 26.39 | $3.17 |
| 46 | Maine | 27.78 | $3.33 |
| 47 | Connecticut | 29.38 | $3.53 |
| 48 | Rhode Island | 29.46 | $3.54 |
| 49 | Massachusetts | 30.48 | $3.66 |
| 50 | California | 32.54 | $3.90 |
| 51 | Hawaii | 40.59 | $4.87 |
Rates: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, annual average residential price, 2025 (eia.gov). Full list on the electricity rates by state page.
Measure it instead of estimating
Kasa KP125M Matter Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring (2-pack)
Logs daily and monthly kWh in the Kasa app, so you can see the real duty cycle over a week instead of guessing. Rated 15 A, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only.
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P3 Kill A Watt P4400 Electricity Usage Monitor
Plugs in between the wall and any 120 V appliance and shows watts and accumulated kWh. The cheapest way to replace the estimate on this page with your own number.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to run a 55 inch TV?+
About 80 W while on, so 5 hours a day is 12 kWh a month, around $2 at the national average rate and $4 to $5 in Hawaii. Backlight setting is the main variable.
Does a TV use electricity when it is off?+
A modern set uses 0.5 to 3 W on standby, under $1 a year. Quick-start and voice-assistant features can push that to 10 to 20 W, which is $15 to $30 a year.
Does an OLED TV use more electricity than an LED?+
At the same size, an OLED typically uses a little more on average, because full-screen bright content lights every pixel. In dark scenes it uses less. The difference is tens of kWh a year, not hundreds.
How many watts does a 55 inch TV use?+
A current 55 inch LED or QLED TV draws 60 to 110 W while on, about 80 W at a normal living room brightness. Vivid mode with the backlight at maximum can reach 150 W, and an eco or movie mode can drop it to about 50 W. Standby is usually under 1 W.
How much does it cost to run a TV per hour?+
About 1.4 cents an hour for a 55 inch LED set. At 80 W, one hour is 0.08 kWh, and 0.08 kWh x $0.173 is 1.4 cents at the national average rate. In vivid mode at 150 W it is about 2.6 cents.
How much does it cost to run a 55 inch TV per year?+
About $25 a year at 5 hours a day. That is 80 W x 5 hours = 0.4 kWh a day, or 146 kWh a year, and 146 kWh x $0.173 is about $25. That falls within the 80 to 150 kWh a year shown on EnergyGuide labels for this size.
Does a TV use a lot of electricity?+
No, it is one of the smaller loads in the house. A 55 inch set at 5 hours a day uses about 12 kWh a month, around $2 at the national average rate. A cable box or DVR that draws 15 to 30 W around the clock often uses more than the TV.
Does a bigger TV cost more to run?+
Yes, roughly in line with screen area. A 65 inch set draws about 40 percent more than a 55 inch and a 75 inch about 85 percent more. At 5 hours a day, a 65 inch at 110 W would cost about $2.85 a month at 17.3 cents against about $2.10 for the 55 inch.
Can a power station or generator run a TV?+
Yes. At about 80 W, a 55 inch TV runs for roughly 5 hours on a 500 Wh power station after inverter losses (500 Wh x 0.85 / 80 W). Any generator can carry the load, but an inverter generator gives cleaner power for the TV's electronics.
How can I lower the cost of running a TV?+
Switch off vivid mode and lower the backlight, which can halve the draw. Turn on the ambient light sensor and use the sleep timer if the TV runs as background noise. Put the cable box, soundbar and console on a switched power strip, since together they often cost more than the TV.
Marcus Reed
Founder and Editor, CrunchYourDollars
Marcus Reed builds the sizing tools on CrunchYourDollars. He is a software engineer with a long-running PC hardware and power supply habit, which is where the watts, watt-hours and surge math on this site comes from. Product specs are pulled from manufacturer data sheets, electricity rates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and water chemistry rules from the Water Quality Association. He is not a licensed electrician or plumber: the tools show the math and the matching models so you can make the call, and anything involving your electrical panel should be checked by a licensed pro.
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