Turkey, Telly and the Kilowatt: The Real Cost of a 2026 Christmas Binge
Photo: Evelyn Simak, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
There is a particular genre of Christmas guilt that arrives every December. It says you should feel bad about the telly being on all day, the console humming under the tree, and the streaming stick glowing away in the corner. Fair enough. But how much does it actually cost? Not in vague, hand-wavy terms. In pounds and pence, on a 2026 tariff, over the twelve days when the remote control barely leaves the sofa.
We did the maths. It is less dramatic than the scare stories suggest, but there are still a few genuine money-leaks worth plugging before the family descends.
The numbers we are working with
Let's keep this simple. A typical 2026 variable tariff sits somewhere around 24.5p per kWh for electricity. Your exact rate will depend on your supplier, region and whether you are on a fixed deal, but that is a sensible ballpark for a UK household right now.
For the festive period, we are assuming twelve days of heavier-than-usual viewing — call it four hours a day of telly, plus a bit of console time. If your household watches more, scale the numbers up. If you are one of those heroic families who go for a walk instead, scale them down and feel smug.
What your kit actually pulls
Here is the blunt version. Most modern televisions are not the energy monsters people imagine. The differences come from age, panel technology and how hard you are driving the brightness.
| Kit | Typical draw | Festive use | Cost over 12 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55in OLED TV | 100W | 4h/day | £1.18 |
| 50in LED TV | 70W | 4h/day | £0.82 |
| Old 42in plasma | 220W | 4h/day | £2.59 |
| Soundbar | 30W | 4h/day | £0.35 |
| Games console | 160W | 2h/day | £0.94 |
| Streaming stick | 5W | always on | £0.35 |
| TV in standby | 0.5W | 20h/day | £0.03 |
Add up a modern OLED, a soundbar, a streaming stick and normal standby and you are at about £1.90 for the whole twelve days. Throw in a console and you are still under £3. Swap the OLED for an old plasma and you might hit £4. That is not nothing, but it is not the Christmas ruiner either.
The real energy hogs in your front room
The biggest single difference is age. A ten-year-old plasma can pull more than three times what a modern LED does for the same picture size. If you have kept the old set for the spare room and it suddenly becomes the Boxing Day overflow telly, that is where the extra pounds creep in. Over twelve days, the gap between a plasma and an LED is roughly £1.77. Annoying, but not worth a family row.
Brightness matters more than most people realise. Leaving a modern TV in 'Vivid' or 'Dynamic' mode can push power draw up by 20–30% compared with a calibrated 'Filmmaker' or 'Standard' setting. On a 100W OLED, that is an extra 20–30W, which works out at about 25–35p over the festive period. Still small, but it is free money. You are not losing picture quality by turning down the backlight — you are usually gaining it.
The console is the sleeper cost. A modern games console under load can draw 160–200W. Two hours a day for twelve days is about £1. If the kids are on it for six hours a day, triple that. Rest mode is the other thing to watch. Some consoles sip power in standby, but others can draw 5–10W while supposedly asleep, especially if they are downloading updates or keeping USB ports live. Over twelve days, 10W always-on is about 70p. Not huge, but it is the sort of thing that adds up across a year.
Soundbars and AV receivers are modest, but they are often left on when the telly is off. A 30W soundbar left on for an extra four hours a day adds about 35p over the period. Again, small. But if you have a full surround system with a chunky receiver, that can draw 50–80W at idle. That is worth switching off properly.
The standby vampire myth
Here is where the internet gets carried away. Modern televisions have strict standby rules. A typical set draws 0.5W or less in standby. Over twelve days, at 24.5p per kWh, that is about 3.5p. Turning it off at the wall every night saves you pennies. It is not nothing over a year, but it is not the reason your bill went up.
The real vampires are older set-top boxes, satellite receivers and cheap streaming boxes that never truly sleep. A 15W box left on 24/7 costs about £1.06 over twelve days. That is worth dealing with. If a box feels warm when the telly is off, it is drawing power. Put it on a switched extension lead and kill it at night, or enable any deep-sleep setting in the menu.
Streaming sticks are usually better behaved. A 5W stick running constantly is about 35p over the period. If it is powered from the TV's USB port, it will switch off with the telly anyway. If it is plugged into the mains, it will not. Check which one you have.
A sane pre-Christmas checklist
You do not need to turn the house into a power-saving monastery. But a ten-minute pass before Christmas Eve is worth it.
- Switch your main TV from 'Vivid' or 'Dynamic' to 'Filmmaker' or 'Standard'. Drop the backlight a notch if the room is dark.
- Turn on the auto power-off or sleep timer. Most TVs have one buried in the settings. Set it to two or four hours.
- Put consoles into full shutdown rather than rest mode when they are not in use. If you rely on rest mode for downloads, at least disable 'always-on USB' and 'instant on' features.
- Check any set-top box or streaming box that stays warm when the TV is off. Put it on a switched extension lead and flick it off at night.
- If you have an old plasma or a second telly in the spare room, think twice before making it the default Boxing Day screen. Use the newer, more efficient set for the long haul.
- Turn off the soundbar or AV receiver at the wall if it has a hard switch. If not, enable its auto-standby.
- Do not bother unplugging the TV every night for the sake of 3p. Save your energy for the arguments about Monopoly.
The verdict
A normal British Christmas telly binge — modern set, soundbar, streaming stick, a bit of console time — will add somewhere between £2 and £5 to your electricity bill over the twelve days. Even a worst-case old plasma plus heavy console use is unlikely to push past £10. Meanwhile, the oven, the heating and the endless cups of tea are doing far more damage.
So indulge. Watch the specials. Let the kids play. Just spend ten minutes fixing the obvious leaks: brightness, rest mode, and any box that is quietly humming away in the corner. That is the Reviewr approach to festive energy: keep the telly on, keep the bill sane, and keep the guilt for the turkey.
