Long nights mean more screen time, and that can nudge your electric bill upward. Modern TVs are far more efficient than a decade ago, but they still draw tens to over a hundred watts in typical living rooms. I changed five settings on my sets this winter and saw real savings without sacrificing picture quality—here’s exactly what I did and why it works.
Measured with a smart plug on a 65-inch LED and a 55-inch OLED, these tweaks cut active power draw by roughly 25% to 40% depending on content, and slashed standby waste when the TV wasn’t in use. At the average U.S. residential rate (about 16¢ per kWh, per the Energy Information Administration), the math worked out to a few dollars off each winter month—small on its own, but meaningful when energy costs are already high and viewing hours climb.
- Set picture mode to Movie/Cinema or Eco to save energy
- Enable the ambient light sensor for darker evenings
- Use sleep timers and Auto Power Off to cut waste
- Disable Quick Start and always listening features
- Turn the screen off during music or podcast listening
- What I saved this winter and how you can replicate it
Set picture mode to Movie/Cinema or Eco to save energy
Most TVs ship in Vivid or Standard modes that push the backlight or OLED pixel brightness well past what you need at home, especially at night. Switching to Movie/Cinema or Eco trims the panel’s light output, which is the main driver of TV power use.
How it works: LED LCDs consume power largely in their backlight; lower the backlight setting and you decrease LED current almost linearly. OLEDs are self-emissive—dimming “OLED Pixel Brightness” reduces the energy each pixel draws. In my tests, moving from Standard to Movie and reducing the backlight/pixel brightness to a comfortable 120–160 nits cut draw by 20% to 35% in SDR content. The Natural Resources Defense Council has reported similar gaps between Vivid and calibrated modes in lab testing.
Pro tip: On many sets “Brightness” adjusts black level, not the light output. Look for Backlight, OLED Pixel Brightness, Panel Luminance, or Power Saving instead.
Enable the ambient light sensor for darker evenings
Ambient Light Control (sometimes called Eco Sensor, Light Sensor, or Intelligent Sensor) uses a tiny photodiode to detect room brightness and dynamically lowers the screen in dim spaces. Winter evenings are darker than summer afternoons—your TV should be, too.
How it works: The TV maps room light to a target screen luminance curve, reducing the backlight or OLED drive when the environment is dim. Because perceived brightness is relative to surroundings, you won’t feel like the image is “too dark,” yet the power draw drops. Depending on the model, I saw 10% to 30% reductions in typical evening viewing. ENERGY STAR encourages these controls, and many certified models rely on them to meet efficiency targets.
Use sleep timers and Auto Power Off to cut waste
If you drift off with the TV on, you’re paying for hours of unnecessary runtime. I set a nightly sleep timer and enabled “Auto Power Off” after inactivity. Many sets also offer “No Signal Power Off” to shut down when an input goes idle.
How it works: These features monitor remote control activity, motion sensors (on some models), or input signals and transition the TV to deep standby. On-mode power can be 70–150 watts; standby on modern sets is typically below 0.5 watt, per U.S. Department of Energy guidance. Saving even two unneeded hours a night can avoid 4–9 kWh per month, depending on your screen and settings.
Disable Quick Start and always listening features
Fast boot features keep parts of the processor and network stack awake so the TV wakes instantly. Likewise, far-field voice (“Alexa Hands-Free,” “Hey Google”) can hold the system in a semi-active state. I switched off Quick Start/Instant On and disabled hands-free voice listening.
How it works: With Quick Start enabled, standby can jump from the California Energy Commission’s typical 0.5-watt target into the 8–20-watt range on some platforms. NRDC field work has flagged these modes as silent energy hogs. Turning them off returned my sets to sub-watt standby, trimming roughly 5–12 kWh a month while the TV sat idle—often the largest single savings in winter when the TV is off more hours than it’s on.
Where to find it:
- LG Quick Start+
- Samsung Instant On
- Sony/Google TV Quick Start or Remote Start
- Roku TV Fast TV Start
- Fire TV Quick Start
For voice, turn off hands-free wake words or mute the mic toggle.
Turn the screen off during music or podcast listening
When I put on playlists or news podcasts, I use the TV’s “Screen Off” mode so only the speakers stay active. Many brands hide this under Eco settings or assign it to a long-press on Mute. Sony calls it Picture Off; LG has Screen Off; Samsung offers Turn Off Display.
How it works: The panel (backlight or OLED driver) is the hungriest component. Killing the panel drops consumption from, say, 80–120 watts to the audio electronics and system-on-chip alone—often under 10–20 watts. If you stream background audio a couple of hours a day, this one change can save 4–6 kWh per month.
What I saved this winter and how you can replicate it
Across a typical winter month of 5–6 viewing hours a day, these five changes saved me about 12–22 kWh—roughly $2–$4 at national average rates. Your mileage will vary with screen size, HDR usage, and how often Quick Start was inflating standby. Larger sets and brighter defaults can net bigger gains.
To reproduce: pick Movie/Cinema or Eco, reduce Backlight/OLED Pixel Brightness to comfortable nighttime levels, enable the light sensor, set a sleep timer and Auto Power Off, disable Quick Start and hands-free voice, and use Screen Off for audio. For a reality check, plug your TV into an energy monitoring smart plug to see the before-and-after. Small wins add up—especially on long, cold nights when the TV is on more than usual.
