Playstation 3 is a Power Hog

An Australian consumer magazine called Choice has investigated the Playstation 3 (PS3) to find out just how much energy the popular game console burns through. The results of their investigation will definitely surprise you.

When your PS3 is on and you are playing a game, it is burning 5 times the amount of energy your refrigerator is using. If you like to leave your PS3 on all the time, it will cost you about $250/year in additional energy costs. 

When compared with other popular game consoles, the PS3 is the worst in terms of energy use when idling coming in at 31.74 kWh, while the XBox 360 gets 23.57 kWh and the Wii gets just  2.97kWh.

You can see all the consumption data from Choice HERE

If you use a lot of these different components and you are trying to cut back on your energy use, avoid letting them idle or stay in standby mode by plugging your whole entertainment set-up into a surge protector that has a shut off switch. When you aren't using your electronics, just switch off the power and you won't have to worry about "phantom energy" sucking up power unnecessarily.