TV Amps by Screen Size Explained
To help answer the question of how many amps does a TV use, we reviewed and analyzed 349 name brand TVs. We will provide tested and proven power consumption numbers for TVs from 32 to 98 inch screens, and will show you how much amperage a TV can consume when powered on!
Many situations only allow a small number of amps on the circuit breaker, such as a camper, a recreational vehicle (RV), or a battery-powered home off the grid.
If you’re on a current-limited power system, like those listed above, then you are definitely interested in how many amps your TV uses!
Highlights:
- On average, LCD TVs use 1.15 amps when in On mode and 4.2 milliamps when in Standby mode.
- TV amperage varies from 0.22 amps for 32 inch TVs all the way up to 3.03 amps for 98 inch TVs.
- TV amperage varies drastically depending on features like size, resolution, backlight type and audio power.
Amperes is the unit of measurement for electrical current. Most of the time power and voltage are discussed, but in certain situations, knowing the amount of current needed to power a TV is just as important due to circuit breaker limitations.
If you’re simply looking for how many watts a TV uses, then be sure to check out our articles about that!
What makes this information and data different from other websites writing about this topic is that we researched only name brand TVs for this data, and didn’t use any of the readily available TV power information from Energy Star. Most of those TVs are not what people are buying and using, so that data under-estimates the true TV ampere ratings.
If you’re looking for how many those TV amps are going to cost you, then read this article!
What are TV Amps?
TV amps is the amount of current, at a known voltage level (usually 120V in the United States) needed to operate the TV. This is the amount of current needed for all of the TV electronics to function, like turn on the back-light LEDs, process the video signal from the cable box, satellite dish or Wi-Fi connection, and play sound out of the TV speakers.
It’s very important to know this value in certain applications, like a camper. In that situation, there’s usually only one 30 amp breaker for the entire camper electrical system.
Hence, every amps counts, and knowing how much power budget you have for a TV can help you make an educated decision about the TV size, resolution and features.
If you buy too large or power hungry of a smart TV for your camper, then it might work like you expect it to!
How to Calculate TV Amps from TV Power
It’s not normal to see the current rating for a TV listed.
Usually, the typical power consumption is listed, or possibly the energy rating that tells you how much energy, listed in kilowatt-hours (kWh), you can expect the TV to use in a year.
So, the relationship between current (measured in amperes), voltage (measured in volts) and power (measured in watts) is:
Power = Voltage x Current
But since we usually know the values for voltage and current, we need to rearrange the equation to solve for the current:
Current = Power / Voltage
For example, if a TV is listed to use 120 watts of power, and we know the voltage is 120 volts, then the current draw would be 1 amp!
Current = 120 watts / 120 volts = 1 amp
How to Calculate TV Amps from TV Energy Usage
Things get a little bit more complicated if only the yearly energy consumption is provided. On the energy guide label below for the Sony XR-55A80K, it says that it can use 200kWh per year!
You might be asking yourself, what does 200kWh even mean when it comes to current draw for the TV? Well, I’m glad you asked so that I can explain it for you.
Energy Star testing for electronics decided on a standard for measuring TVs for energy consumption. The assumption for the energy calculation is that the TV is in On mode for 5 hours per day and in Standby mode (off mode) for 19 hours per day.
We know most smart TVs only use 0.5W when in Standby mode, so the first thing to do is write the equation for calculating the TV energy usage for an entire year using the following formula:
Yearly Energy = [(5 hours x TV power) + (19 hours x 0.5W)] x 365 / 1000
Fortunately, we know everything in this equation other than the TV power, so let’s rewrite it to solve for it:
TV power = {[(1000 x Yearly Energy) / 365 ] – (19 hours x 0.5W)} / 5 hours
For the TV in this example, the TV power calculates out to be 107.7 watts!
How we can go back to the equation given early to turn power into current and we get:
Current = 107.7 watts / 120 volts = 0.9 amps
I’ll be sure to add a calculator to this page in the future so you don’t have to go through such rigorous math calculations just to figure out how much current your LED TV draws!
How Many Amps do TVs Use?
As stated earlier, 32 inch to 98 inch TVs use between 0.30 amps and 2.10 amps, on average.
The minimum current draw for a 32 inch TV was only 0.22 amps, but the maximum TV current draw was 4.33 amps for an 85 inch TV!
The average current draw for all TVs studied was 1.15 amps when in On mode.
To help you visualize the trend between LCD TV size and current draw, we created the following chart. It’s easy to see that the TV current increases as the size of the TV increases, but it’s also worth noting that larger TV screens tend to have high resolutions like 4k (2160p) or 8k (4320p).
It’s worth mentioning that these current numbers are for typical power consumption, which means each TV can actually consume even more power, and current, when in a different mode.
Things like increasing the screen brightness and turning up the speak volume can cause the TV to use up to three times as much power and current! But for everything presented in this article, we are only referring to the typical current numbers for the LED TVs.
The chart below shows the minimum, median and maximum TV current draw for the TVs reviewed in our study. It’s interesting to note the wide difference in power and current needs for TVs of the same size, but have different features like resolution, back-light LEDs and audio power.
TV Amps by Screen Size
LCD TV screen size is the most popular way of choosing a TV, which is closely followed by resolution and other features like Wi-Fi, audio quality and if it’s a Smart TV or not.
Based on the previous two chart, it’s easy to see that TV amps increases with TV screen size, so as a consumer you can expect the larger TVs to consume more energy and amps, and cost more to operate.
The following table puts the TV screen size and TV amps side-by-side so you can easily see how each TV size compares to the other ones when powered with 120VAC.
| TV Screen Size | TV Amps (Average) | Brand Name TV |
|---|---|---|
| 32 Inch | 0.30 Amps | Vizio D32F-J01 |
| 40 Inch | 0.38 Amps | Sansui S40P28F |
| 43 Inch | 0.58 Amps | Hisense 43H4G |
| 50 Inch | 0.73 Amps | LG 50UP7000PUA |
| 55 Inch | 0.93 Amps | TCL 55R6G |
| 58 Inch | 0.90 Amps | Insignia NS-58F301NA22 |
| 65 Inch | 1.23 Amps | TCL 65R648 |
| 70 Inch | 1.10 Amps | Hisense 70A6H |
| 75 Inch | 1.69 Amps | Vizio M75QXM-K03 |
| 77 Inch | 1.42 Amps | Sony XR-77A80K |
| 83 Inch | 1.45 Amps | LG OLED83C1PUA |
| 85 Inch | 1.81 Amps | Sony XR-85X95K |
| 86 Inch | 1.50 Amps | LG 86NANO90UNA |
| 98 Inch | 2.10 Amps | Samsung QN98QN90AAFXZA |
TV Amps by Resolution
The breakdown of TV current draw by resolution is shown in the chart below.
As you can see, as TV resolution increases, so does the current draw from the power source.
While you can find some smaller LCD TVs with 2160P resolution, the majority of TVs with 4K or 8K resolution are in larger TV classes like 50 inch to 98 inch.
By now, you should start to understand the relationship between TV size, TV resolution, and expect current draw in amps!
TV Amps by Brand Name
We picked the following eight brand name TV manufacturers for this review:
These brands were picked based on brand recognition, variety of TV sizes, resolutions and features, product reviews, and availability on websites like Amazon.com. In addition, by gathering unique data and not using the Energy Star TV database, we’re providing more realistic and practical TV current draw numbers to you.
The table below shows you how each of the brand name TVs compare when their TV amps are averaged over the different TV class sizes.
| Brand Name | TV Screen Size (inches) | TV Amps (Average) | # of TVs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sansui | 32, 40, 43, 50, 55, 58, 65, 75 | 0.52 Amps | 17 |
| Samsung | 32, 43, 50, 55, 65, 75, 85, 86, 98 | 0.86 Amps | 69 |
| Insignia | 32, 40, 43, 50, 55, 58, 65, 75 | 0.86 Amps | 14 |
| LG | 32, 43, 50, 55, 65, 70, 75, 77, 83, 86, 88 | 1.00 Amps | 77 |
| Vizio | 32, 40, 43, 50, 55, 58, 65, 70, 75, 85 | 1.11 Amps | 45 |
| TCL | 43, 50, 55, 65, 70, 75, 85, 98 | 1.33 Amps | 46 |
| Sony | 32, 43, 50, 55, 65, 75, 77, 83, 85 | 1.36 Amps | 37 |
| Hisense | 32, 40, 43, 50, 55, 58, 65, 70, 75, 85 | 1.40 Amps | 44 |
How Many Amps Does a TV Use When Off?
Unfortunately, TVs do draw some current even when they are off, or in Standby mode.
Most smart TVs have a Wi-Fi connection, which requires power to keep this constant connection to the Wi-Fi router in the house or apartment.
In addition, there’s the TV sensor that’s always on and waiting for a signal from the TV remote to turn the TV to On mode so you can start watching TV.
While the current draw during Standby mode is very low at about 4.2 milliamps, it can slowly drain a battery if left plugged in for a long time!
How Many Amps Does Your TV Use?
Hopefully this study of modern TVs in 2023 from name brand manufacturers helped give you an understanding of the amount of current needed to power LED TVs.
There was a lot of information presented, but the information was presented in such a way to give you an idea of approximate current needs, per TV, in your home, camper, RV or elsewhere.
And with that information, you can then calculate how much current you need to run the TV on your current-limited circuit breaker.
We’d love to hear from you if you have any comments or specific questions that we didn’t cover.