Does it take more electricity to turn the t.v on and off several times a day or just leaving it on constantly?

Question

Does it take more electricity to turn the t.v on and off several times a day or just leaving it on constantly?

Answer 1

Only in the event that your tv has an electron scanning gun or an arc lamp.

That means if its a crt or flat screen LCD or DLP uses an arclamp.

A flat PANEL (to all the idiots out there, there is a difference between SCREEN AND PANEL !!!!!) LCD or Plasma will use a back-lighting system that does not need to be ignited.

Answer 2

This is a longstanding urban legend... it has never been true. Yes, some devices do surge a small amount when you fire them up. But that's power over only a few seconds, tops. You'll use more power in normal operation with a light bulb, TV, computer or pretty much anything else in less than a minute.

There may be other issues, however. Some devices get hot in operation, and while they will draw more power when left on, they might actually last a bit longer when left on, as they won't suffer thermal stress in the heating and cooling process. This is probably only an issue with things that go on and off many, many times in a day... your computer, for instance. Smart power savings options for computers and other things (set top boxes, game consoles, etc) probably offer the best compromise, if you're worried about long life. But to be as green as possible, you might want to switch off whole systems (computers, media room, etc) using a power strip... that ensures everything is off (well, you might leave the PVR or VCR off of that).

Of course, any device that you can turn on with a wireless remote control was never really all the way off, either. Modern TVs, DVD players, etc. go into a low-power standby mode (probably below 25W, if they meet the "EnergyStar" specifications, though these vary by device I think) and power down the hungrier bits, but they keep at the least a small CPU and sensor alive to respond to a remote control. This really does very little for the time it takes to power on the system, but it does keep you from having to walk across the room.  

Answer 3

The power surge created when turning the T.V. on will equate to a minute at the max of run time, more likely 30 seconds, so unless you are leaving the room for less then a minute it will be more efficient to turn it off.

Answer 4

It used to be true, with cathode ray based TVs, that it took more power to fire them  than when running them (you kind of need to quantify "several times a day" - I think you'd have to turn it on like every 20 minutes to soak up more power than just leaving it on).  Flat screen LCD TVs, however, do not draw significantly more power when starting up.

So, while there was some (small amount of) truth to what you have heard, it is no longer true for newer TVs.

Answer 5

Modern tvs, the kind that has a remote, is always on.

There are two modes of on: in use, and standby.

It uses more juice when in use.  The capacitors in the boob tube will prevent some surge but leaving it on definatey uses more kilowatts.