The Plasma TV Blog

It is a bit difficult to estimate the power consumption of a Plasma television because of the nature of its display characteristics. Since the amount of current needed to “fire” the plasma and produce the image is so dependent on the type of image being reproduced, power consumption is going to vary widely depending on the individual watching habits of the set’s owner. For example, a football game with its rapid motion and bright colorful background is going to require a considerable more amount of power than a slow paced and dark movie.

Many tests have been run to determine power consumption in plasma units, and taking a look at a sample test will give some insight into the answer to the question. In one test of a rather large screen plasma TV, the unit was set to operate at standard mode for an eight hour continuous period. The test signal was a wide variety of programming recorded from a standard cable TV channel. It was found that the power consumption for the test period ranged from 292 to 505 watts for each eight hour test period. The average consumption was 399 watts. The test confirmed the up and down pattern of consumption based on image activity that is common in Plasma units.

Using an arbitrary, but average figure of $0.08 per kilowatt hour, this would still only work out to around $85 per year. Regardless of how these figures are crunched or the type of tests run, the bottom line is that Plasma TVs are not all that expensive to run. At even double the kilowatt cost of the above test, watching your plasma TV eight hours a day, seven days a week, will cost less per month than one trip to the movie theater.