Videogame consoles exposed as serious energy guzzlers

by Stevie Smith - Jun 5 2008, 11:40

With Greenpeace recently slamming videogame consoles for their toxic production processes, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 once more find themselves in the firing line. This time the criticism comes from consumer group Choice, and the fingers of accusation are pointed firmly at terrible levels of energy consumption.

According to a new electronics study carried out by Australia’s largest consumer organisation, two of this generation’s three home console offerings leave a lot to be desired when it comes to promoting energy efficiency, with only the Nintendo Wii performing notably well in an ecological sense.

Specifically, Choice labelled Sony’s PlayStation 3 as the worst consumer electronics offender across its study of 15 household appliances, with the power hungry console sucking up a massive 1,738 KWh over the course of a year, which equates to an extra $260 AUD on the user’s electricity bill.

Coming in second on Choice’s list of poor performers was Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which guzzles 1,355 KWh each year for an extra energy cost outlay of $203 AUD.

Notably, the Nintendo Wii only requires 164 KWh over an entire year, which sees its pennywise gamers needing to find only $25 AUD in order to run it during that period -- a mere 10 percent of the PlayStation 3’s total energy demands.

In terms of further shock-value comparison, the study revealed that the PlayStation 3 demands around five times more operational power than a medium-sized refrigerator measuring around 60-inches in height and 12 cubic feet in volume.

“While we hope no one actually leaves their games console on for a whole year 24/7, the figures are indicative of just how much electricity these small devices can chew their way through,” commented Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn in an Intology report.

Other interesting appliance comparisons uncovered by the study include a mainstream desktop PC (2.13GHz, Intel Dual Core, 1GB of RAM) requiring a yearly 868 KWh of energy, which equates to $130 AUD, while an iMac (2GHz, Intel Dual Core, 1GB of RAM) needs only 534 KWh for $80 -- and has its screen built-in too.

The report also found that Plasma television sets use more than four times as much energy as conventional cathode ray (CRT) televisions, while an LCD computer monitor delivers twice the efficiency of a CRT alternative.

Mr. Zinn added that consumers should be given better information regarding the power demands of videogame consoles, computers, and computer-related hardware, with Choice believing that such devices should be subject to an energy efficiency guide, much like everyday household appliances such as fridges, freezers, portable air conditioning units, etc,.

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