Game console power usage examined

Arstechnica posted an article about the power consumption of game consoles and its pretty startling. The Xbox 360 consumes 119 watts while the PS3 consumes 150 watts. If I left my 360 on all year it would cost $103.

This data comes from a report by Natural Resources Defense Counci that suggests several factors contributing to increasing power usage by consoles.

“
1. The overall number of video game consoles in U.S. households is increasing
2. Increases in the average power consumption of consoles
3. Power management features are not easily accessible to users or do not exist on certain video game consoles
4. Many video game consoles are left on for extended periods of time in Idle mode.
5. Video game console manufacturers continue to offer additional entertainment features on their consoles
with each new generation.
6. U.S. consumers often use their video game consoles as high-definition videodisc players.
”

They also make several suggestions to decrease the power consumption. The big one is simply turning the console off when done using it. Too many people leave theirs on and as consoles become more of a multimedia device, it will be easier to forget. Also, all game consoles should have an auto-power down feature and we should all be using it. Manufacturers should use the most efficient power supplies and optimize power usage during movie viewing.