Environmental Group Rates Console Energy Use

47
The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental non-profit group, has studied the energy consumption patterns of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii, and released a report showing each system's impact on the environment.

The study, noticed by Slashdot, found that American console players consume 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, on par with the entire consumption of the city of San Diego, California.

The Wii is far and away the most frugal of the three current-generation consoles by consuming an average of only 16 watts while active. The next best, the Xbox 360, leaps up 119 watts on average, and the PlayStation 3 steps up further to an average 150 watts.

The NRDC argues that the use of power-saving features in consoles could cut up to 11 billion of that 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, saving $1 billion on electric bills and cutting CO2 emissions by 7 million tons--as much as all the cars in San Jose, California.

The group pointed out that the 360 and PS3's power-saving auto-shutdown features are turned off by default. Shacknews readers are encouraged to visit the NRDC's guides for enabling power-saving features to save a few bucks.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 19, 2008 5:38 PM

    My 24 inch full hd pc monitor consumes 150 watts too...

    I don't wanna know what my machine eats up, but I'll see at the end of the year. :(



    Back to topic: I'd actually find it awesome if they'd put energy saving features inside consoles, I'm sure it would be a great way to help.

    • reply
      November 19, 2008 5:57 PM

      If you mean auto-off and hibernate functions, they're there. The NRDC would like to see more features and have them set more conservatively by default, though.

Hello, Meet Lola