How many watts does a TV use?
A modern LED or LCD television uses about 30 to 120 watts while it is switched on, depending mostly on screen size and how bright the picture is. A midsize 55-inch LED averages around 80 watts during normal viewing, a small 32-inch set draws closer to 40 watts, and a large 75-inch model can pull 120 watts or more. These are far below the number printed on the back of the set, which lists a rated maximum the TV almost never reaches in everyday use.
Two things push a TV toward the top of its range. Brightness is the biggest factor: a bright HDR movie or a store-mode demo can double the draw of the same TV showing a dim scene, because the backlight is what eats the power. Panel type is the other: an OLED TV can pull 100 to 180 watts on a bright, full-white image where an LED of the same size sits near 80, since OLED lights each pixel individually. Older technology is in a different league. A plasma TV from the 2000s could draw 150 to 400 watts, which is why replacing one with a modern LED is a real savings.
For the exact figure for your set, check the EnergyGuide label or the spec sheet for its annual kWh, then divide by your yearly viewing hours. That gives a truer average than the nameplate wattage, which is a ceiling, not a typical draw. If you are sizing power for several devices, a TV is a small piece next to bigger loads like a refrigerator.
How many watts does a TV use by screen size?
TV wattage scales with screen size at roughly 0.1 to 0.2 watts per diagonal inch for modern LED sets, so bigger screens cost more to run. Here are typical running figures for LED/LCD TVs at normal brightness: a 24-inch uses about 20 to 40 watts, a 32-inch about 30 to 55 watts, a 43-inch about 45 to 80 watts, a 50-inch about 60 to 90 watts, a 55-inch about 70 to 100 watts (call it 80 as a planning number), a 65-inch about 90 to 120 watts, and a 75-inch about 100 to 180 watts.
Treat those as LED ranges at everyday brightness. An OLED of the same size runs higher on bright content, often 20 to 60 percent more, because it has no separate backlight to dim. Resolution barely matters on its own; a 4K and a 1080p set of the same size and brightness draw about the same. The safe move for power planning is to use the top of your size's range so a battery or inverter is not caught short during a bright scene.
How much electricity does a TV use per day and per month?
A TV watched five hours a day uses roughly 0.3 to 0.5 kWh per day, which comes to about 9 to 15 kWh a month. Using a 55-inch LED at 80 watts as the example: 80 watts for 5 hours is 400 watt-hours, or 0.4 kWh a day, about 12 kWh a month and roughly 146 kWh over a year. Watch it eight hours a day and those numbers climb by about 60 percent; a small 32-inch set roughly halves them.
In dollars, that is minor. At the 2026 US average residential rate of about $0.16 per kWh, a 55-inch TV run five hours a day costs around $0.06 a day, close to $2 a month, or about $23 a year. Your real cost depends on your rate, your set, and how many hours it runs, so treat these as estimates rather than a fixed figure. The difference between the 80-watt draw and the 0.4 kWh daily total trips people up; if that split is fuzzy, our explainer on kW vs kWh clears it up.
Does a TV use electricity when it is off?
Yes. A TV that is switched off but still plugged in keeps drawing about 0.5 to 3 watts of standby power so it can respond to the remote, keep its settings, and update software. This vampire draw is small: at 2 watts around the clock, a single TV wastes roughly 17 kWh a year, or under $3 annually. It is real but rarely worth losing sleep over for one set.
Where it adds up is in a house full of always-on gear: a TV, a soundbar, a game console in rest mode, and a streaming box together can idle at 20 to 40 watts. Rest-mode consoles are the worst offenders, often 10 to 15 watts on their own. If you want the standby draw gone, put the cluster on a switched power strip and cut it at the wall. For a battery or off-grid setup, unplug idle electronics so they are not quietly draining your stored charge overnight.
What size inverter or power station do you need to run a TV?
A TV needs only a small inverter because it has no motor and no startup surge, unlike a fridge or a pump. A 150 to 300-watt pure sine wave inverter runs almost any consumer TV, and a 500-watt unit gives comfortable headroom for the TV plus a soundbar and a streaming stick. Use a pure sine wave inverter rather than modified sine; some TVs show faint lines, buzz, or refuse to sync on the choppier modified-sine waveform.
Runtime is set by your battery, not the inverter. A portable power station with about 1 kWh of usable capacity can run a 55-inch TV for roughly 10 to 12 hours on a charge, since the set only pulls around 80 watts. A smaller 300 Wh station still gets you three to four hours, enough for a movie night off-grid. Our breakdown of what a 100Ah battery can run shows the watt-hour math for stretching stored power, and a plug-and-play solar generator is the simplest way to power a TV during an outage.
Can you run a TV on solar panels?
Yes, and a TV is one of the easiest things to run on solar because its daily energy use is so low. A single 100-watt solar panel in good sun makes roughly 400 to 500 watt-hours a day, which is about what a 55-inch TV uses in five hours of viewing. In practice you pair the panel with a battery so the TV can run after dark and through cloudy days, since panels only make power while the sun is up.
For a cabin, an RV, or outage backup, a 100 to 200-watt panel and a power station handle a TV plus lights and phone charging without strain. The catch is always storage and weather, so size for your worst week, not a sunny afternoon. Rather than guess a panel count, add the TV to your other loads and run the total through the solar panel calculator for your climate. If you want a foldable panel to recharge a power station, see our picks for the best portable solar panels.
Frequently asked questions
How many watts does a 55 inch TV use per hour?
A 55-inch LED TV uses about 70 to 100 watts while running, so in one hour it uses roughly 70 to 100 watt-hours (0.07 to 0.1 kWh) of energy. A good planning number is 80 watts, or 0.08 kWh per hour. A 55-inch OLED runs higher on bright content, often 100 to 130 watts per hour, because it has no separate backlight to dim during bright scenes.
How many watts is a 32-inch TV?
A 32-inch LED TV uses about 30 to 55 watts while it is on, with most modern sets near 40 watts at normal brightness. That is one of the lowest draws of any TV size, so a 32-inch set is easy to run off a small power station or a single solar panel. Older or very bright models sit at the top of that range.
How much power does a 65 inch LED TV use?
A 65-inch LED TV uses about 90 to 120 watts during normal viewing, and a 65-inch OLED can pull 100 to 180 watts on bright HDR content. Watched five hours a day, a 65-inch LED at about 100 watts uses roughly 0.5 kWh per day, around 15 kWh a month, and costs close to $2.40 a month at average US electricity rates.
Can a 300 watt generator run a TV?
Yes. A 300-watt generator or inverter easily runs a TV, since even a large 65-inch set draws only about 90 to 120 watts and a TV has no startup surge to cover. A 300-watt source leaves room for a soundbar or a couple of lights alongside the TV. Just use a pure sine wave unit so the picture stays clean and the TV does not buzz.
Will a 100 watt solar panel run a TV?
Yes, with a battery in between. A 100-watt panel in good sun makes about 400 to 500 watt-hours a day, roughly what a 55-inch TV uses in five hours, so it can offset a TV's daily energy use. You still need a battery or power station to run the TV after dark and on cloudy days, because the panel only produces power while the sun is shining.