Videogame consoles in the U.S. consume as much electricity every year as the entire city of San Diego. This is the summary of an investigation undertaken by the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) on the energy use of game consoles.

The NRDC’s study is founded on two estimates. The first being that over 40 percent of all homes in the United States contain at least one videogame console, and the second being that half of all users leave their consoles on indefinitely. With these guestimates, the NRDC supposes that consoles consume 16 billion KWh per year.

Of that figure, the NRDC calculates that this overuse of power annually results in more than 7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. This too is based on an assumption that these consoles are directly connected to power sources which emit carbon dioxide, such as coal-fire power facilities, and not renewable or nuclear facilities.

The study also pinpoints the power consumption of the three nextgen TV consoles, noting that the Wii uses an average of just 16 watts when active; a mere fraction of what the 360 (119 watts) and the PS3 (150 watts) consume when running a game. The report adds that the 360 is provided with an auto power-down option, but criticizes the feature for being disabled by default and “buried deep in the system menu.” The study also points out that in October Sony introduced a power management feature via a firmware update, “but it too is disabled by default.”

The report believes that the incorporation of more focused and user-friendly power management features could make a gigantic cut in energy consumption. In fact, of the NRDC’s estimated US consumption rate of 16 billion KWh/year, power management features could drop this figure as low as 5 billion KWh/year.

The report calls for all parties within the game industry to work together and rollout a campaign which would educate people on the power consumption of consoles. It also has provided some simple steps that it wants the industry to take on board, such as a more thorough incorporation of a power-down feature in consoles, a ‘sleep button’ on controllers, as well as incorporating the most efficient processors and power supplies.

The NRDC’s full report can be found here [large pdf].

A smaller fact-sheet summary of the report can be found here [pdf].

Source: NRDC via Ars Technica