It stands to reason that the larger your TV set gets the more power it sucks from the socket and the higher your electric bill will be. Of course this also raises your cost of ownership, something few people take into consideration when buying a new TV.
As you can see in the chart I swiped from CNET’s TV power consumption quick guide, running your average plasma TV requires 328 watts of power. Pair it with an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 and a cable/satellite box, and god knows what else you’ve got plugged in running in standby mode and it’s easy to see how you can rack up the charges.
CNET compares the power consumption of 54 TVs in the story. The cheapest to operate is the 27-inch Envision A27W221 LCD costing $33.62 annually. The worst? The Sharp LC-65D90U, a 65-inch LCD pulling down 583 watts when on, 76 watts in standby and costing an average of $223 annually to operate.