Report: PS3's a Power Hog

[Logan Frederick]

Report: PS3's a Power Hog

Electric costs for using a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 trounce refrigerating TV dinners for a year by five times.

In a study on consumer expenses for electricity, Australia's Choice Magazine [http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?id=106346&catId=100245&tid=100008&p=4&title=Computers%27+energy+costs] studied the cost of using various household devices in multiple states of power usage. Tests conducted experimented with various computers, consoles and televisions set off, idle and on to determine the price each item charged and the energy spent per week, month and year.

Out of all items tested, Sony's Playstation 3 was the biggest power guzzler, followed closely by the Xbox 360. Nintendo's Wii cost one-tenth of what the other major consoles cost per use to actively use for an entire year.

While the Plasma television you might be using to play your videogames may cost you $232 a year, the PS3, the only more environmentally-unfriendly piece of technology tested, racks up a $260 bill.

Source: Choice Magazine via Spong [http://news.spong.com/article/15500/PS3_is_10_Times_More_Power_Hungry_Than_Wii?cb=207]

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[Dante_Alucard]

Wow Ineed to cut off the back switch of my PS3

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

My roomate lost her job and spent about 2 weeks looking for jobs and watching every DVD series we have in the house, on my PS3, that alone cost us about $150 in electricity for the month... I think.

 

[Cousin_IT]

...times like this im glad my X360 has decided to break

 

[SimpleReally]

wii uses 10 times less electricity ? how ??

 

[slaygore]

Wow 360 cost the most when it's off(aside from wii being off with Wiiconnect24 on). Gotta unplug my consoles from now on.

Edit:

wii uses 10 times less electricity ? how ??

Cause it's a small little hardware that doesn't use high-end technology to run power graphic games and doesn't have an insanely large heat sink that's loud as hell.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

So that's why my bills look weird this year. After switching to CF bulbs, I wasn't seeing any drop... but I'm using the 360 more than my old Xbox.

Gah, y'can't win...

-- Steve

 

[Dom Camus]

These stats are massively misleading. That's $260 per year only if you never switch it off and it never idles all year.

 

[oshin]

Our tests also found that leaving a PlayStation 3 on while not in use would cost almost $250 a year in electricity bills (charged at 15c per kWh). This alone is around five times more than it would take to run a refrigerator for the same yearly period.

The Xbox 360 was not far behind the PlayStation 3 in energy usage costs per year, serving as an important reminder to turn off videogame systems after use.

Thats pretty unreal, the psu just sitting with the console there happily sucks up a fortunes worth of electricity, im gonna start unplugging mine for sure.

 

[Logan Frederick]

When turned off the cost isn't too large. It's just that if it's left on and not being played, you're wasting a ton of money.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

When turned off the cost isn't too large. It's just that if it's left on and not being played, you're wasting a ton of money.

Especially if you've, er, left it idling on a game for a couple of hours with the HD TV and Dolby 5.1 running. Um. Yeah. Not exactly eco-friendly.

(Oops.)

-- Steve

 

[Echolocating]

When turned off the cost isn't too large.

You mean the thing sucks power with the switch turned off?! Crazy!

 

[Lt. Sera]

I don't understand how people (who are writing about power consumption in consumer electronics) can be so amazed that there is a large gap between the Wii and the other consoles. Seems to me to be a logical assumption going in. A smaller, less powerfull computer, built in the same time period would naturally use less power then the large powerhouse computer.

As for people saying i gotta unplug my shizzle: get one of these [http://www.popelectronics.nl/images/T/t-110-108.jpeg] and just hit the off switch on all your stuff at once when you're done.

 

[Arbre]

When turned off the cost isn't too large.

You mean the thing sucks power with the switch turned off?! Crazy!

It's because of the standby LED among other things. This applies to all electronics.
Now look at the amount of energy spent to lit up the pavement in certain towns or districts...

 

[chaostheory]

Our tests also found that leaving a PlayStation 3 on while not in use would cost almost $250 a year in electricity bills (charged at 15c per kWh). This alone is around five times more than it would take to run a refrigerator for the same yearly period.

The Xbox 360 was not far behind the PlayStation 3 in energy usage costs per year, serving as an important reminder to turn off videogame systems after use.

Thats pretty unreal, the psu just sitting with the console there happily sucks up a fortunes worth of electricity, im gonna start unplugging mine for sure.

That is if you left it at the XMB for a year strait. It only costs about $2.33 per year to have it turned off. Or if you are still concerned you can just flip the switch in the back which will cut its power entirely costing you nothing.

 

[stompy]

Meh, the thing people should be concerned about is if console owners (and PC owners I 'spose) are gonna listen... What do you guys think?

 

[slaygore]

Meh, the thing people should be concerned about is if console owners (and PC owners I 'spose) are gonna listen... What do you guys think?

I will because I'm a cheap bastard.