Did you know that not all game consoles use the same amount of power? Peter Troast of Engery Circle soon discovered this very fact when he brought a Nintendo Wii and an Xbox 360 to his PS3 household. Guess which one is the power hog?
Peter wanted to know how much energy each was sucking in so he used the Kill a Watt to test them, "first, for how much electricity they'd draw in use; secondly, for when the devices were on but idle; and finally, for how much vampire power they draw when they're turned 'off,' which actually means they're in standby power mode."
What Peter discovered was that the Wii used exponentially less power than both the Xbox 360 and PS3 when in use, but all used about the same amount of vampire power (around 2 watts). It all makes sense when you think about how much larger both the Xbox and PS3's graphics processors are in comparison to the Wii. Still reminds us all to unplug all our gadgets when not in use!
Peter plugged all his media components into a BITS Smart Strip Power Strip. "We set the TV as the control device, and switched all the other video dependent components to go off automatically when it's turned off (with the exception of the DVR)."
Sounds like a game winning idea.
(Image: top, Andrew-LGP via Creative Commons license)
Posted originally from: Unplggd
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Comments (2)
Do you realize that to save a single kWh (about 10 cents) by unplugging your gaming system while it's not in use takes almost 3 weeks? Saving money/energy is great but there are ways that are a lot more effective.
strliam,
That may be true, but unplugging all of those little items in your house when not in use really do add up to using significantly less electricity and in lower your bill. I put my family on a year long electricity diet. We lowered our electric use by 32% (our goal was 20% which we thought was going to be hard to reach.) The thing that made the difference in lowering our use was turning the TV, game system, DVD player, etc. off at the power strip when not in use. A total surprise that it made such a big difference on our part.
Based on that experience, when we got a Wii, we keep it unplugged until we use it. Based on how Wii Fit pines for us, we have kept it unplugged for 3 weeks or longer at a time.