A way to save a buck

[Meier Link]

OK I just found this topic on Yahoo news,

Video game consoles consume a "staggeringly high" amount of energy, according to a report the Natural Resources Defense Council is releasing on Wednesday. How much electricity do they use each year? About as much as it takes to power the city of San Diego.

There's plenty of room for improvement. We can cut our nation's electricity bill by more than $1 billion and avoid 7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to the report.

How much can you personally save? Depends on what brand you choose. The Sony Playstation 3 and Microsofts Xbox 360 use as much as nine times more energy than the Nintendo Wii.

Habits play a crucial role as well. The systems use nearly the same amount of power when they are turned on and idle as they do when you are actively playing a game or watching a movie. If left on continuously, the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 will consume the same amount of energy as two new refrigerators over the course of a year.

I found it to be very interesting, the statistics on saving movey are pretty crazy also if you think about it in the long run

Sony Playstation 3 is the most power-hungry model. For the 2007 version, you'll spend about $12 a year if you turn the console off when you're not using it, compared to about $134 if you leave it on all the time.

Microsoft Xbox 360 ranks a close second. If you shut it down when you're not playing a game or watching a movie, it costs about $11 to operate annually. Leaving it on continuously will cost you $103.

Nintendo Wii uses significantly less energy than the others. It costs about $3 a year if you turn it off after use, compared to about $10 if you don't.

So what are your thoughts/reactions?

Source:
Stop wasting money: video games and energy efficiency | Yahoo! Green

[Quistis]

What shocks me is that there are actually people who leave their consoles on after playing...Sure, it happens once in awhile because we can forget but to actually have an article about it means that the number of people who do this is quite staggering =P

[Ultima Warrior]

Does that include when you turn them off compleatly or only standby?

[icemageofkatrac]

Standby, and i use a wii, turned of when im done playing, so this isnt my fault lol

[Azuteor]

I don't see any point in leaving a console on the entire time. I sometimes do it myself when I'm in a point where I wouldn't be able to save my progress or I got so far ahead into the game that if an unfortunate circumstance occurred, I would have to start all over again. It helps to save constantly.

Developers should definitely look into how much energy their consoles consume. I'm pretty sure they have. Could this be the cause of the 3 Rings of Death in the Xbox 360? Things might be different in the future as technology gets more advanced.

[Rocky]

I don't see any point in leaving a console on the entire time. I sometimes do it myself when I'm in a point where I wouldn't be able to save my progress or I got so far ahead into the game that if an unfortunate circumstance occurred, I would have to start all over again. It helps to save constantly.

Developers should definitely look into how much energy their consoles consume. I'm pretty sure they have. Could this be the cause of the 3 Rings of Death in the Xbox 360? Things might be different in the future as technology gets more advanced.

Sometimes for downloads for games that include long expansions and/or a lot of content, I will keep my box on overnight or something. Usually I'm pretty good about unhooking it from my wall even when not in use, as it also cuts down on the system cache and it allows the games to have an easier time to connect via online.

And as for the RROD problem in 360s, it is usually because of the xbox overheating when it tries to run games that cause graphical overhauls, and it is more common for it to happen with older boxes playing graphically challenging games (like my first gen 360 playing halo 3 for several months straight caused it for me )

And yeah, I tend to leave mine on a light while idling, but people can use the dashboard to send messages or talk back and forth, so I don't just do it because I'm too lazy to shut the system off lol, its more for other people to get a hold of me that I play with online.