Game Console Energy Usage Comparison

Broadband writes "Modern gaming consoles consume more and more power, dissipate more and more heat and cause a lot more noise with their cooling systems compared to their brethren a decade ago. While it's obvious that an Xbox 360 would have higher energy demands then a Playstation 1, the curious question is by how much? Even more importantly is the question of whether your console might be costing you money while you sleep. Preposterous you say? Actually quite the opposite! We put every console in our lab through rigorous testing to find the answers to these questions and see who the energy hogs really are. "

Comments

Article spread over several pages

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's the meat of what they're saying:

Power consumption in standby (cost) - On, no disk - playing game - annual cost based on 14 hours play per week:
Playstation 1 - 0.1W ($0.26/year) - 4W - 6W - $0.92
Playstation 2 - 2W ($2.63/year) - 23W - 20W - $5.91
Xbox - 0.2W ($0.53/year) - 61W - 70W - $8.17
Xbox 360 - 2W ($2.63/year) - 145W - 165W - $20.10
Gamecube - 0.2W ($0.53/year) - 20W - 21W - $2.82
Dreamcast - 0.2W ($0.53/year) - 17W - 22W - $2.93

Conclusion: 2 hours of play per day on the Xbox 360 (the newest and least efficient of the consoles reviewed) costs you $20 a year, and you can save $2.50 a year by unplugging your PS2 or xbox when not using it.

They make a bunch oc conclusions like "We might unpack our Xbox 1 to play games on instead of backwards compatibility on the 360". Personally, though I'm concerned by PC's power consumption, it seems to me you can save much more with energy-efficient bulbs than you ever would by doing that.

Posted anonymously because I'm basically copying their hard work.