PS3 A Power Hog?

According to a report by the Australian Consumers' Association's Choice publication, it is. The report shows leaving your PS3 on when you're not gaming can cost you A$250 ($239) a year in electricity bills.

Choice tested several common consumer electronics devices such as LCD TV's, CRT TV's, laptops and desktops. They also tested many gaming consoles including the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.



Surprisingly their tests show that the when left on constantly, the PS3 consumes about the same amount of electricity as five refrigerators! For energy conscious consumers out there or anyone looking to lower the bills this should serves as an important reminder to turn off video game systems after use.

The PS3, while on and running a game, consumes some 33.34kWh weekly--equivalent to around A$5 ($4.79). When on but idle, it uses almost as much, sapping 31.74kWh, or A$4.76 ($4.56). When the machine was off (with the back switch on), power usage plummeted to 0.30kWh, or A$0.04 ($0.04) a week.

In comparison, the Xbox 360 used up 26kWh per week in power when on and running a game--about A$3.90 ($3.73) in real money. When on but idle, the figure was slightly reduced to 23.47kWh or around A$3.53 ($3.37), and when off used up only 0.40kWh or A$0.06 ($0.06) a week.

Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo Wii used the least power--under 10 percent of that needed for the PS3. Playing a game, it uses 3.14kWh costing A$0.47 ($0.45) a week, and on but idle it drained 2.97kWh or A$0.45 ($0.43). When the console was switched off, but WiiConnect24 remained on, this dropped to 1.78kWh, costing A$0.27 ($0.26) a week. When WiiConnect24 was also turned off, this figure became 0.32kWh or A$0.05 ($0.05) a week.

The report also found that the Plasma TV set tested was a "power hungry device" and required over four times as much power as a traditional CRT analogue TV set. The reverse can be said of LCD monitors verses older CRTs. The LCD monitor consumed less than half the power of the CRT.



Not to surprising was the fact that the laptop consumed roughly 20% of the power that the desktop did, in fact the logitech x-530 speakers that were tested almost used up as much power as the MAC book pro that was tested.