Power-Sucking Video Games

The Natural Resources Defense Council recently released results of the first comprehensive study to measure electricity use of gaming devices like XBox and Playstation, and the results were grim. Unless the consumer enables the automatic shutoff feature (similar to the "sleep" feature on your computer), these devices can use more energy than all of your kitchen appliances combined! You can click here for directions on turning on the automatic shutoff feature. Even if you're not a gamer yourself, please talk to those neices and nephews of yours over Thanksgiving to tell them about this important way to save energy!

Here is an excerpt from the article; please visit the NRDC website for more information.

Today, more than 40 percent of all homes in the United States contain at least one video game console. Recognizing that all that gaming could add up to serious demand for electricity, NRDC and Ecos Consulting performed the first ever comprehensive study on the energy use of video game consoles and found that they consumed an estimated 16 billion kilowatt-hours per year -- roughly equal to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego. Through the incorporation of more user-friendly power management features, we could save approximately 11 billion kWh of electricity per year, cut our nation's electricity bill by more than $1 billion per year, and avoid emissions of more than 7 million tons of CO2 each year. In this November 2008 issue paper, NRDC provides recommendations for users, video game console manufacturers, component suppliers and the software companies that design games for improving the efficiency of video game consoles already in homes as well as future generations of machines yet to hit the shelves.