Power Hungry Gaming Consoles Result In $1B Per Year

With 40 percent of American households owning a gaming console these days, the energy consumed to run them and the money spent in turn is a big price overall.  The Natural Resources Defense Council and Ecos Consulting have conducted the first study on the energy consumption of video game consoles used by Americans.

The results of the study show that 16 billion kilowatt-hours are consumed each year.  The biggest contributor to the energy consumption is the Playstation 3, averaging around 150 watts (although newer models will run at lower wattage values).  The Xbox 360 takes second, averaging around 119 watts (again the “Jasper” version will consume less wattage).  And, third is the eco-friendly Wii console, only averaging 16 watts due to its less intensive graphics processor.

Sony and Microsoft have both implemented power-down functions in their consoles that can help reduce the amount of energy you consume running your console, considering most wasted energy is  a result of the user leaving their console on while not playing.  It is estimated that $1 billion annually can be saved with these power-down features, equating to 7 million tons less of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere.

One way of reducing your energy bill is to plug all your major electronic devices into a power strip.  During the night, and when you are not at home you can flip to power strip button to off to keep your electronic devices from using energy when not turned on.  Every electronic device uses a bit of energy when they are powered down.

Source:  ecogeek; $1B Per Year Wasted by PS3s and XBoxes

December 29, 2008 at 9:29 pm | Hardware | No Comments