Sustainable development blog : ecology and humanitarian aid

Picture from WatchMojo.com

Making sure your kids turn off their video game consoles when they are finished playing could help save the planet and your cash. A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council in the US found that around 50% of video game console users do not turn them off, or leave them in idle mode, when they have finished playing, needlessly consuming precious and expensive energy resources.

More than 40% of homes in the US have at least one video game system, and collectively they consume 16 billion kilowatt-hours of energy every year. That is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego.

Topping the list of energy-guzzling game systems was the Sony PlayStation 3 at 150 watts in active mode, followed by Microsoft’s XBox 360 at 119 watts. The most power-efficient console was the Nintendo Wii at a mere 16 watts in active mode. Although some manufacturers have tried to optimize the efficiency of their systems and have achieved some energy reductions, it is still the problem of game consoles being left on that uses more energy and increases operating costs.

Another problem is that some power management features built into game consoles are not easy for users to access and some games won’t allow players to save their progress, forcing them to leave the game system on until the next time they can play. And many people also use their game consoles to watch movies, which requires twenty-four times more power than a stand alone DVD player.

It is estimated that if more video gamers turned off their consoles when they were finished playing, and manufacturers incorporated more user-friendly power management features, they could potentially save 11 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year in the US alone. That represents seven million tons of CO2  emissions, which is roughly the amount produced by all the cars on the roads in San Jose every year. Not to mention a significant savings on the power bill too!