TvSnob
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How much does it cost to just leave your HDTV plugged in?
While it's true that we waste plenty of electricity each year just so our electronics are ready to go when we are, we think it's worth it. TV Snob pointed us towards an article in Good Magazine which indicated that a Plasma TV was the worst offender -- and by a large margin -- but the math doesn't jive with ours. According to the article, leaving a plasma plugged in all year will cost you about $150, which seems crazy. So we grabbed a Kill-o-watt and hooked it up to a 60-inch Pioneer Kuro while it was off, and measured a 20 watt draw. Now we didn't major in math or anything, but according to our calculations that is only about $20 a year, (20 watts * 8760 hours / 1000 * $.11) not $150. In fact even if we actually used the TV for eight hours a day, at about 500 watts, it'd still only cost us $170 (including the standby draw). Either way, we're glad they got us thinking about how much power we're using, but at $20 a month to watch HD, as far as we're concerned, it is money/power well spent .
