The price of electricity continues to rise, in an ascent until now unstoppable despite the variations in the electricity bill, and without apparent limit in the short-medium term that makes consumers rethink aspects until now little valued by many when it comes to buy electronic equipment last generation.
I am referring to the energy efficiency, data that we can consult in the renewed efficiency labels that each team must display, and that give us an idea about the average spending on electricity that a device will cause us over time due to its use.
Although when valuing technical aspects of a television It is not a point that I worried too much until recently, since it is not one of the appliances that spend the most, the truth is that such what is getting the cost of each watt and given the intensive use we make of the small screen at home , is an increasingly important factor to take into account.
Therefore, something that seemed unthinkable a few years ago is gaining strength in recent months: change an old TV inefficient for a much more efficient modern one can make its cost is amortized in a few years.
This is so depending on what type of TV you have, the one you want to buy and above all the use that you usually give your equipment, since it is not the same who only puts it on for one or two hours a day and on some weekends that who uses it intensively on a daily basis by multiple family members.
Extreme case: replacing my old plasma TV
As an example I will give you my case. At home we have several TVs and one of the most used on a day-to-day basis is an already veteran plasma model over 10 years (one of those with a reputation for good image quality but also serving as a heater for the living room) that has a high maximum electrical consumption that is around the 265 watts with all the shine on top. To this we must add that It does not have a DTT decoder integrated and therefore needs an external one that consumes an additional 15-20 watts. We will consider an average of 250 watts to simplify calculations.
This particular TV is on an average of 10 hours a day in daytime from 12:00 noon, so its use usually covers the range of flat and tip rates, except on weekends, where it is turned on during off-peak hours but for 3 or 4 more hours.
To start calculating the first thing we have to do is find out the cost per KWh of electricity that we are going to consume, a figure that varies every hour of the day and that will depend on each electricity company, but that we can average today, at the time of writing, with the following values according to what is marked on the Red Eléctrica website Spanish in the three fixed sections: “punta, llano y valle”:
- Cost in off-peak hours: € 0.15 / kWh
- Cost in flat hours: € 0.19 / kWh
- Cost during peak hours: € 0.28 / kWh
The peak period is during which the cost of tolls and charges will be higher, lasts 8 hours and is included between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and the 18 and 22 hours. The flat section lasts another 8 hours, has an intermediate cost and is between the 8 and 10 o’clock, the 2pm and 6pm and between 22 and 24 hours. Finally we will have the valley rate, another 8 hours which is the cheapest period and includes between midnight and 8 in the morning as well as during all hours on weekends and holidays.
To see how we could amortize a new TV, we are going to consider a mid-range LCD-LED model of about 600-700 euros and an equivalent size or something greater than the one we already have, which is around 40-43 inches. If we look between interesting modern models and look at the specifications of the different manufacturers, we can find that in general maximum power consumption does not exceed 130-150 watts, data that depends on how the intensity of the LED, OLED light is adjusted and of course what type of content we put, if they are SDR, HDR, movies, cinema, cartoons, etc.
But to simplify the calculations we will consider that value of 150 watts every hour in front of 250 watts from old TV, which make a difference of 100 watts per hour of use. In my particular case, we assume that it will be on for about 10 hours a day, half in the “flat” price range and half in “peak” hours to make the calculations easier.
This gives us a price of (0.095 + 0.14) = 0.235 euros per day difference between the two TVs, which is about 7 euros per month and if we extrapolate to a whole year we arrive at about 84 euros. If we divide the 600 euros by this amount, it gives us a period of amortization of about 7.14 years with what we have been saving on the electricity bill.
Swapping your old LCD TV for a modern OLED
Another example that we can consider is to make the change of a few years old LCD TV for a new one with OLED panel technology, based on self-emitting pixels and generally much more efficient than LCD, especially if it is more than 7-10 years old and predates the implementation of LEDs as a backlighting system.
In the older LCD televisions we have consumptions that easily exceed the 200-250 watts on average in sizes of about 50-55 inches. But without going much back in time, with a modern LCD-LED mid-range TV (2019) of the most popular such as the Sony XG95 we have a standard / maximum consumption of 145/256 watts at 55 inches, which is 176/313 watts in 65 inches, 230/371 watts in 75 inches and 282/438 watts in the 85-inch model.
If we opt for OLED technology, consumption drops considerably with respect to LCD. For example, with a model from the same manufacturer, the Sony AG9 we have values of 132/394 watts in 55 inches and 169/490 watts in 65 inches. We can also opt for a more efficient model in the OLED range such as the LG G16LA with the latest generation EVO panel that offers us a consumption of 107/165 watts in the 55-inch version or 128/226 watts in the 65-inch version.
Let’s do numbers. For example, we will consider an old 55-inch LCD TV with an average consumption of about 250 watts and that we are going to replace it with a much more efficient OLED, such as the LG G16LA also in 55 inches with a average consumption of 135 watts. In this case the difference in electricity consumption will be 115 watts per hour. If we assume a use of 10 hours a day, half in the “flat” price range and half in “peak” hours for making the simplest calculations we will have 575 watts in each strip.
This means (0.11 + 0.16) = 0.27 euros per day difference between the two TVs, which gives us some 8.13 euros per month and if we extrapolate to a whole year we arrive at about 97.56 euros. If we divide the price of the OLED TV that right now can be bought for about 2,000 euros by this amount, it gives us a period of amortization of about 20 years, clearly excessive if what we are looking for is the amortization, given the high price of OLED models currently with respect to mid-range LCDs.
However, we can, for example, draw an interesting conclusion such as the savings that we can obtain in different ranges of time if we change telephones. Thus, in the event that we think that the new screen last 5 years, the savings compared to an old model can be around 487 euros. If we consider some 7 years of use the figure is 682 euros and if hopefully it lasts 10 years, the savings will have been 975 euros.
- Savings in 5 years: 487 euros
- Savings in 6 years: 585 euros
- Savings in 7 years: 682 euros
- Savings in 8 years: 780 euros
- Savings in 9 years: 878 euros
- Savings in 10 years: 975 euros
As we can see, the calculations are done a bit roughly and logically depend on what the price of electricity remained constant during those years, what TV do we have, of if we only have one or more that we want to replace in different rooms, which one we want to buy and the particular use in hours and type of content (HDR, SDR, etc.) that we give each one, but they reflect a trend that can be extrapolated to the rest of the household appliances and That highlights something that many users overlooked until a few years ago.
The electricity consumption of our new appliances is a key factor and increasingly fundamental that we must assess with as much care as the rest of the specifications and functionalities if we do not want its future use to cost us a small fortune.