Plasma TV, Games Consoles Guzzle Power

Think your energy bill is too high? Australian consumer agency Choice finds that plasma TV sets and game consoles slurp up astonishing amounts of power.

Australian consumer agency Choice took a look at the amount of power consumed by 16 common electronics devices, including notebook computers, stereo systems, DVD players, televisions and game consoles. And if you think you power bills are too high, you might want to look to your consumer electronics: the agency found that Sony’s PlayStation 3 consumed the most power of the devices tested, followed closely by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and plasma televisions—even when idle and not in use. And the PS3 consumed 10 times the as much power as the NIntendo Wii.

The agency’s tests found that leaving a PS3 on while not in use over a period of a year would cost about five times more than running a refrigerator for the same period.

Plasma televisions were also revealed to be energy hogs, consuming over four times as much power as a traditional CRT analog television set.

Among computers, the agency found that an Apple iMac—with a build-in LCD display—consumed about two-thirds as much power as a Windows-based PC without any display at all. The study found that the LCD displays in Apple iMacs user less than half the power of their CRT-based predecessors.

The agency recommends consumers turn off devices when not in use, either by putting them into standby mode or—better yet—turning them off at the wall. The agency also recommended upgrading from CRT monitors to LCD displays, recycling old computers, taking advantage of power-saving features in both the Windows and Mac OS operating systems, reusing and recycling ink cartridges, using rechargeable batteries, and reducing print waste by going paperless whenever possible.

Showing 12 comments

  1. James at 12:47pm 4th June 2008 Kohvu, where did you see a link to this site on Yahoo?
  2. Kohvu at 9:41am 4th June 2008 i love that, tack'd onto the end of this, there's a little snippet of information "reduce paperwaste by going paperless whenever possible."

    YES! YES! Since i was JUST going through my energy bill and thinking "HOLY EXPLECITIVE! THIS IS WAAAAY HIGH!!! I need to lower this. And, also, i think I need to care for our enviroment more by not having the phone/electic/cable/insurance/credit card/gas/water companies, and my bank, waste all of that paper sending me bills. If only there was some blog or survey posted online, within easy access, that would give me tips on how to conserve energy, and also tie that into to this attrocious waste of our worlds precious trees, which in turn will cause our landfills to get ever so slightly larger."

    OH LAWDY!!! Thank you Yahoo for forewwarding me to this website. and thank you website for the information, which ties exactly the two topics i was concerned about together.

    Since I frequently go emo-nature-green when my electricity bill is too high.
  3. bryan at 7:23pm 3rd June 2008 Green. If we could just start drilling through the heads of those poor polar bears we wouldn't have to worry about green. Better yet lets build some nuclear plants like the freaking French. My ps3 runs at least 8 hours a day. The other 16 hours a day I'm at work in the coal mine.
  4. Matt at 6:12pm 3rd June 2008 I don't care how you justify it...

    "The agency's tests found that leaving a PS3 on while not in use over a period of a year would cost about five times more than running a refrigerator for the same period."

    Thats insane, Sony wasn't thinking green at all.
  5. Tim Stevens at 6:12pm 3rd June 2008 Melvin:

    If your A/C is running constantly, you have too small of a unit.

    I can imagine the PS3 sucking up lots of power, it has 8 cores!

    I am a bit surprised with the TVs, although both Plasmas and LCDs put off a ton of heat.
  6. Craig at 5:43pm 3rd June 2008 And your point is?
  7. melvin watson at 5:29pm 3rd June 2008 How is the plasma TV in comparison with a 3&1/2 ton air condition unit on electricity usage during the summer months.
  8. Pedro at 5:29pm 3rd June 2008 Ian, checkout the Bits Energy Saving Smart Strips. At bitsltd.net. it's not remote controlled, but could be pretty useful. Stanley has remote controlled power strips by The NCC. They are geared towards the holidays, but I'm sure could be put into everyday service. Checkout www.thencc.com
  9. eric at 5:23pm 3rd June 2008 "That's like expecting us to be surprised when you tell us a Mainframe computer uses more power than a calculator-watch."

    If the Nintendo Wii and the PS3 had different functions, then yes, you would be correct. Now, you can say, "It's like comparing a calculator to a calculator that has a built-in phone, dvd player, mp3 compatibility, 2.0 Mp camera..." and etc.
  10. king at 5:08pm 3rd June 2008 You have to love fanboys:

    Dave on Jun 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 AM:
    "And the PS3 consumed 10 times the as much power as the NIntendo Wii."

    That's like expecting us to be surprised when you tell us a Mainframe computer uses more power than a calculator-watch.
  11. Dave at 11:34am 3rd June 2008 "And the PS3 consumed 10 times the as much power as the NIntendo Wii."

    That's like expecting us to be surprised when you tell us a Mainframe computer uses more power than a calculator-watch.
  12. Ian Bell and Dan Gaul at 10:30am 3rd June 2008 You know what would be a great idea? If someone invented a powerstrip that turned off at the push of a remote button.

    The problem with CE products is that they can lose their memory once the power is truly turned off, if everything had a built in battery, then this would not be a problem. Instead everything goes into standby mode where it still saps energy.
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