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Nintendo’s Wii is the Most Eco-Friendly Console

Posted on: Saturday, 22 November 2008, 11:05 CST

New research from the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) finds that the use of video game consoles nationwide consumes about as much electricity in a year as every home in San Diego combined.  The consoles also significantly contribute to consumers’ electric bills.

Much of the energy is consumed by machines that are left on, but not in use, the report said. 

“If you leave your Xbox 360 or Sony Play Station 3 on all the time, you can cut your electric bill by as much as $100 a year simply by turning it off when you are finished playing,” said NRDC Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz.

“With so many struggling in today’s economy – it’s important to realize there are simple steps gamers can take to lower their energy costs. And if manufacturers make future systems more energy efficient, they’ll be doing the right thing for consumers’ pockets, for our clean energy future, and for the environment.”

The NRDC looked at the “big three” video game consoles – Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft XBox360 and Nintendo’s Wii – and measured the amount of power they consume when they are active, idle and turned off.  The research found these systems use nearly the same amount of power when you are playing them as they do when you leave them on and walk away.  

With more efficient devices and utilizing existing power-saving features, consumers could save more than $1 billion annually on utility bills, and could reduce as much global warming pollution each year as the tailpipe emissions from all the cars in San Jose.  

Automatic power-down features in particular, which shut off devices if they are left idle for a certain amount of time, are big energy-savers.   The feature exists in the Xbox 360 and was recently added to the Playstation 3, although it is rarely used and has room for improvement.
 
According to the report, the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, on average, use150 Watts and 119 Watts of power respectively, much more than their prior generation of consoles.   These two systems can each consume more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours per year if left on contiuously, an amount equal to the annual energy use of two new refrigerators.  

The Nintendo Wii, in contrast, uses less than 20 Watts when powered on and actually uses slightly less power than the previous generation console.
 
The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 also operate as high-definition video players. When they are used this way, the consoles continue to operate at nearly peak energy levels, even after the movie ends, unless the device is turned off. The Playstation 3 uses five times the power of a stand-alone Sony Blu-ray player to play the same movie.    This difference is particularly striking considering these two products are made by the same company.
 
National video game energy use is growing as more and more homes have these devices and additional features are added.  The NRDC report offers suggestions for consumers to cut their game console-related energy costs.  It also provides recommendations on ways that manufacturers can dramatically improve the efficiency of next generation consoles currently under development.   NRDC is working with t leading video game hardware and software designers to help make these improvements.  In particular, the organization is working to make sure users will be able to automatically save their settings and place in the game before they shut down the systems.
 
“Energy efficiency saves people money, reduces global warming pollution, and is an essential part of our clean energy future,” said Horowitz.

“Electronics manufacturers can help by making smarter products. NRDC is working to make sure this happens.”

The full NRDC report can be viewed at http://www.nrdc.org/energy/consoles/contents.asp.

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On the Net:

www.nintendo.com

Source: redOrbit staff and wire reports

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