Gamer Heads, Power Down.

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Gento

In a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University it is believed that video game consoles cost U.S. homeowners more than $1.24 billion per year. A significant portion of that cost is due to 10.8 terawatt-hours of power consumption (is that right?), according to their study.

We can all agree wasted energy adds up quickly when you have gamers starting at a very young age and continuing into adulthood. No worries, just like anything else there is a solution and believe it or not it is SIMPLE. All you games really need to do is fully turn off the console when you are done. And don’t worry, your game will save. It’s no longer the days of the Atari 2600 when all your settings and achievements get lost when you power down.

Sony and Microsoft have worked to make their products more energy efficient however;, both the Xbox 360 and PS3 still draw significant power. If gamers choose to let their consoles go into standby mode and not completely power them down as they often do, the game console can continue to consume about 75 watts of power..

To provide the consumer with a better understanding of this high cost and wasted power issue, game console manufactures can create efficiency charts that show the power wasted over a certain period of time if the console does not get completely powered off.

Manufacturers can utilize Raritan iPDUs to implement power efficiency testing methods that can build a framework for game console power utilization efficiency standards.