Does unplugging your TV overnight actually save electricity? Yes, but there's a better method

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

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The "Black Parade" turns 20 this year, and if that made you feel old, you're probably also at the age where you're wondering if you can save a bit of money on your energy bill by unplugging your TV overnight or when you go on vacation. 

While it's true that TVs used to be power-hungry devices that drew a lot of electricity, even when in sleep or standby mode, we've come a long way from the early days of flat screens and CRTs (no, not that one). 

Also: How to disable ACR on your TV 

With better tech comes better energy efficiency and lower costs, meaning while it's no longer as impactful to leave your TV unplugged overnight, you can still gain full control over your TV's power settings by disabling standby modes and LED indicators on a variety of models. Here's how to do it, and more reasons why you should.

How to disable standby mode

Every brand sets up its menu options differently, and the ability to toggle off energy-saving modes is often buried in layers of settings. The only exception is if you have an Amazon-branded Fire TV, such as the Omni or 4-Series. For whatever reason, Amazon did not include the option to disable standby mode or to turn off the obnoxiously bright LED indicator within the user settings. 

The only solution I found involves very complicated debugging software that, quite frankly, doesn't seem worth the headache. Thankfully, the rest of the major brands make it much easier:

• Samsung: Settings > System/General > Power and Energy > Standby Light
• Sony: Settings > System > ECO > Idle/Standby
• LG: Settings > General > System > Additional Settings > Standby Light
• Hisense: Settings > System > Advanced Settings > Power Indicator
• TCL: Settings > System > Device Preferences > Standby/Power LED Indicator
• Insignia or Toshiba Fire TV: Settings > Preferences > Standby
• Roku: Settings > System > Power > Standby LED 

Talking cents

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

If you're like me and you've realized you've become your father halfway through your rant about turning off the light when you leave the room, you probably remember just how energy-hungry TVs used to be. Especially the early LCD and plasma models. 

For those of us who developed the habit of fully unplugging our flat-screens whenever we leave for vacation or even just overnight, tech has come a long way in the last ten years. Televisions are much more energy efficient, using LED technology to help lower operating costs. 

Also: How to turn off HDMI-CEC on your TV

And while yes, it is annoying that nothing actually fully powers down anymore, the energy draw that standby modes and LED indicators have is just a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of your home.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average cost of electricity per kilowatt hour is 17.24 cents. And since many modern TVs include information on how much power they consume over a year, it's easy to calculate both the maximum operating costs and how much you actually save by disabling standby mode.

To put things into perspective, let's compare two popular TV models: the LG G5 OLED and the Toshiba C350.

As you can see in the chart, the energy efficiency and operating costs of a high-end OLED and an entry-level LED are fairly even. With a difference of just 13kWh, it only costs $2.32 more to use the LG G5. And that's assuming you've got it running for hours during the day. Both also draw less than 0.5W of energy while in standby mode. 

Also: I stopped leaving these 7 common household devices plugged in, and my energy bill noticed

To calculate the average cost per year in standby mode, we have a simple formula. Convert the wattage to kilowatt hours by dividing by 1,000. Then multiply that by the number of hours it will be in standby, and finally multiply the result by the national average electricity rate. For this little exercise, I assumed both screens would be in standby for at least 8 hours every day. So it should look a little something like this:

(.0005kWh X 8 hours) X .1724

Of course, your personal costs may be more or less depending on how much you actually use the TV, but in the grand scheme of things, the 11 cents won't make or break anyone. And with operating costs so close between premium and budget TV, it really is a testament to how far technology has come in terms of energy efficiency.