Gaming consoles waste lots of electricity

Tons of energy is being wasted every year by gaming consoles in idle mode according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.

A study on the energy consumption of games consoles shows that 68 percent of all energy consumed by consoles in 2010 happened when the device was in idle mode.

This equates to 10.8 TWh of energy, and around $1.24 billion (R9.72 billion) in electricity costs.

The study also found that 1 percent of all residential energy consumption in the United States was due to gaming consoles.

“We demonstrate that the most effective energy-saving modification is incorporation of a default auto power down feature, which could reduce electricity consumption of game consoles by 75 percent (10 TWh reduction of electricity in 2010),” said the study’s authors.

Game consoles such as the Xbox 360 already incorporate auto power down features, which have a standby mode that powers down the console if it remains idle for more than an hour.

Updated software for the PlayStation 3 can add power management features to the consoles, however this is disabled by default and users have to manually adjust settings.

Read the full story at: Cnet.

Tags: active, Carnegie Mellon University, nintendo wii, playstation 3, Xbox 360