game consoles use waaaaay too much energy

Hey kids - here is a place where you can make a real difference! 

Big game consoles like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 use a lot of power. The National Resources Defense Council says these games use about as much power as two refrigerators! (here is a paper for those of you who want to learn about it)... about 150 watts.

Let's see how much 150 watts is...

Daisy-Mae says energy is power something uses times how long it is on.  If  you just leave the game on, you use 8760 hours in a year times 150 watts for a total of 1,314,000 watt-hours of energy. The electric company sells energy in kilowatt-hours (1000 watts in a kiloatt), so this is 1314 kilowatt hours. Where Daisy-Mae and Zula live electricity is about 14 cents a kilowatt-hour, so this is over $180 a year! Not only are you wasting money, but a lot of carbon is being emitted.

This is definitely not cool.

These games have idle modes, but they use almost as much power as when you are playing a game.  You can set them for auto-shutdown, but you have to do that as they don't come that way.  Leaving it plugged in and idling is almost as expensive as using it around the clock. 

Better yet just unplug them when you aren't playing!  

Tell all of your friends about this and kids can lead the way and save a lot of energy.  Maybe you can make a deal with your parents that they will pay you something for making sure your game console is unplugged when it isn't being used.   

Here's another suggestion.  Games are nice, but you won't get strong playing computer games.  A Wii might be cool, but try playing something real.  Play fetch with your dog, race your bike with friends, run, play some football, shoot some hoops, or play some volleyball.  Not only is it more fun than a game, you'll get stronger and look better than kids who just sit around indoors.  

Comments

[Marta Ruth]

Hi! I'm a solar cell researcher in Sweden and one of my interests is home energy consumption (I also have a lot of interests not related to energy). Being a scientist, I love the way you've backed up some plain old good advice with lots of data and computations and even included a very interesting bar graph. I work in a university lab that has interactive displays for schoolchildren (here's a link - it's got some nice pictures, but I'm afraid the text is in Swedish - http://www.teknat.uu.se/skola/provapa/augusta/index.php?id=7). Explaining the effects of using a game console in terms of energy is a wonderful idea. It gives me the idea that out solar cell exhibit (http://www.teknat.uu.se/skola/provapa/augusta/index.php?id=15) could make use of as well. I will forward your blog post to a colleague who is in charge of the exhibits and who welcomes ideas like yours.
Balancing computer game playing with outdoor activity is a given here in Sweden. The most recent discussion in the media has been about how the jungle gyms in schools are luring kids away from the most natural play habitat around: the forest. Schools pride themselves on being able to offer not only the most updated computer systems, but also the best access to forest with its entire world of play and discovery. In addition, they like to point out that forest play encourages gender equality (another hot topic here) whereas jungle gyms favor boys.

[Craig L]

The are errors in the basic premise of these calculations (time in off, idle and active modes) which vastly effect the calculations of energy usage. These are basically computers and have the same energy efficiencies (or lack thereof) of such.

What I do agree on is that kids (and adults) should limit their time on game systems and get outside and do something physical. I remember when I was kid, it was considered punishment when we were told we couldn't go outside and play. I doubt that would have the same effect today.