Electricity is always a big talking point in South Africa.
When we’re not experiencing load-shedding and constant fears of meeting demands, we’re quickly shutting off lights so that the bill doesn’t get too high.
Gamers experience the stress of this problem ten-fold, as their hobby revolves around squeezing as much gaming time out of their platforms as possible.
Below is the average wattage of each of the most popular gaming devices:
| Console | Watts |
|---|---|
| PS4 | 90-150 (120 average used) |
| Xbox One | 70-120 (95 average used) |
| Wii U | 35 |
| PS3 Slim | 85 |
| PS3 Original | 190 |
| Xbox 360 S | 90 |
| Xbox 360 Original | 180 |
| Wii | 40 |
With the above information, we then used an EnergyUse Calculator to calculate the kWh per year of each device, if you were to use it an average of 3 hours a day:
| Console | kWh used a year |
|---|---|
| PS4 | 131.4 |
| Xbox One | 105.85 |
| Wii U | 40.15 |
| PS3 Slim | 94.9 |
| PS3 Original | 208.05 |
| Xbox 360 S | 98.55 |
| Xbox 360 Original | 197.1 |
| Wii | 43.8 |
The final step is to translate this information to Eskom’s 2016/17 current Tariffs and charges. As this amount differs according to transmission zone and peak periods, we took an average of R1,20 p/kWh and applied it to the above data:
| Console | Cost per year |
|---|---|
| PS4 | R157,68 |
| Xbox One | R127,02 |
| Wii U | R48,18 |
| PS3 Slim | R113,88 |
| PS3 Original | R249,66 |
| Xbox 360 S | R118,26 |
| Xbox 360 Original | R236,52 |
| Wii | R52,56 |
How do the final results compare to your expectations? Are you going to start monitoring your gaming habits or maybe allow yourself a little more play time? Let us know in the comments below and in our forums.
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Definitely thought it would be higher. Although would have been nice to have known the power consumption and cost on keeping each device on standby for a year.