Power consumption may not be your first concern when you are playing video games, but when your kids are playing for hours every day and you occasionally hear the fan spinning up to cool the console down, you may wonder how much power these entertainment machines consume. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has the numbers.
2010 Xbox 360
The winner of the least demanding console contest is somewhat obvious – the Nintendo Wii is an almost green gaming machine thanks to its design and – in comparison – little horsepower. The Wii used an average of 13.7 watts in EPRI’s tests. The second place may be somewhat of a surprise – as the PS3 consumed 84.8 watts and the Xbox 360 finished last with 87.9 watts.
Based on average gaming habits, the Wii is estimated to consume about 29 kilowatt hours per year, the PS3 178 kilowatt hours and the Xbox 360 184 kilowatt hours per year. Despite the Xbox’ high power consumption it should be noted that the consoles consume far less power than LCD and especially plasma TV screens. Even power-efficient 40-46″ class LCD TVs pull somewhere between 100 and 200 watts and those monstrous 60″+ plasma TVs can blow past 500 watts.
The tests, however, reflect only numbers of the most recent versions of the consoles. According to the firm, the 2006 Nintendo Wii consumed an average of 16.4 watts while the 2007 Sony PlayStation 3 consumed 150.1 watts and the 2007 Microsoft Xbox consumed 118.8 watts.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
