There are about 275 million television sets currently in use in the U.S.  They consume about 4% of all households’ annual electricity use—enough electricity to power all the homes in the state of New York for an entire year!

It can cost between $25 and more than $100 in electricity per year for the average American to power his/her TV, depending primarily on screen size, technology type and picture settings. And, keep in mind, the average plasma TV uses about 60% more energy than an LCD or rear-projection model. Below are a few tips to help cut energy costs when it comes to your TV. Click here to review a study on the top 150 HDTV models and their annual energy costs.

• When purchasing a new TV, look for the ENERGY STAR label.  ENERGY STAR televisions use about 30% less energy than standard units.
• Turn the TV and other connected devices off when they're not being used. Sure, this one's obvious, but it's easy to get into the habit of leaving the TV on as "background" when you're not really watching it.
• Buy a smaller screen. If you're looking to buy a new TV, you can limit your power consumption by buying a smaller set. This doesn't always exactly hold--for example, rear-projection sets are often larger and draw less power than plasma TVs--but once you pick your display technology, going smaller will almost always use less electricity.
• Turn off the Quick Start option. Some HDTVs and some other AV gear have an option called Quick Start or something similar, which allows them to turn on more quickly when you press the power button. The flipside of this mode is that when engaged, it typically consumes more power (sometimes up to 50 times as much) during standby, which can really add up.
• Turn down the LCD's backlight. Many LCDs give you the ability to control the intensity of the backlight in the TV. By turning down the backlight, you'll lower power consumption, but also make the TV less bright.
• Turn on the power saver mode. Many TVs come with a power saver mode that's designed to cut down the power consumption. Performance of this mode varies from model to model, with the effect sometimes being drastic and other times providing only a slight savings.

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