Consoles Worldwide Use 16 Billion-Kilowatt Hours per Year
Date: Monday, November 24 @ 09:44:38 UTC
Topic: Xbox Gaming
In a new study about how much energy video game consoles consume, the Natural Resources Defense Council found that consoles in use today consume "an estimated 16 billion-kilowatt hours per year," which, the report goes on to translate, is "roughly equal to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego."
 Noah Horowitz, a senior scientist at NRDC and the study's lead researcher, said gamers often leave consoles on when they're not playing in order to return to the middle of a level that can't be saved and reloaded in the same place if the power is turned off.
Similar to the hibernating mode available to Windows and Mac computer users, Mr. Horowitz says such a feature for game consoles would help save energy while preserving the player's progress. "If nobody hits the controller for one hour or whatever time you set, the console would go into a lower power state, but before it does it would take a snapshot of your game, and when you come back you go right back where you were."
In terms of overall energy use for the best-selling consoles -- whether regularly turned off or not -- the report describes Nintendo's Wii, which draws 16 watts of power when in use, as a "juice sipper." Microsoft's Xbox 360, drawing 119 watts while active, sits in the middle. Sony's PlayStation 3 was rated as the power hog, at 150 watts while in use.
News-Source: http://www.nytimes.com
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