Are Game Consoles the Worst
Home Energy Wasters? |
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 Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 have powerful graphics engines with millions of transistors running at super fast clock cycles. Unfortunately, they both suck down large amounts of power. The Nintendo Wii, on the other hand, uses a mere 19 watts of power but according to Greenpeace is manufactured with many environmentally questionable materials. The good news is that both Sony and Microsoft now offer auto-power down modes on their consoles to help save energy. The bad news is that consoles come with auto-power saving mode disabled and as if that wasn’t bad enough, almost half the console owners in a recent Retrevo Gadgetology study said they don’t know if it is on or off. |
source CNET |
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| Console Owners Making Up for Manufacturers’ Shortcomings |
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| The Retrevo Gadgetology study asked game console owners how diligent they are about shutting down their consoles when they are not using them and whether or not the power saving mode was enabled. We were pleased to see how many console owners indicated that they don't leave their units powered on when not in use but were disappointed by the number of consoles that may not have the auto-power saving mode enabled. In other words, console manufacturers have not done a very good job of implementing their power saving modes but fortunately many console owners have taken it upon themselves to turn their consoles off when not in use. |
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Advice to Manufacturers:
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• Provide better indication of power saving mode on/off
• Provide better support for auto-saving of games along with auto-power down
• Educate owners about benefits of using auto-power down
• Provide easier method for enabling auto-power down
• Consider enabling auto-power down by default |
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Console Owners Should Consider These Suggestions:
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• Enable auto power saving mode
• Turn off consoles when not in use
• Turn off the Wii Connect24 mode when not used to enable auto-power down mode
• Use Remote Play on the PS3s judiciously to lower standby power
• Consider using a standalone Blu-ray player that only uses about 40 watts
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 More Mixed News
for the Environment
Although both Sony and Microsoft now offer auto-power down modes on their consoles, they are both disabled by default and even when the Xbox 360 has it on, it only offers one option of a 6 hour time out period before powering down the unit. The Nintendo Wii has an auto power down mode that is only enabled when the WiFi “Connect24” mode is not enabled. Unfortunately, a lot of game consoles are still left powered on when not in use. |
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 Still Have a Long Way to Go
Once again there's good and bad news in the auto-power down department. Sony and Microsoft now offer this feature and many owners do in fact have it enabled but these manufacturers may also need to educate owners of their consoles who didn't even know if the auto power saving mode was enabled.
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| Get Green Game Consoles on “Greentrevo” (Retrevo) |
If you’re looking to replace that old PS2 or need to figure out how to enable the power save mode on your current console, Retrevo has information on all the popular game consoles including Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and more.
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 Happy Earth Day!
We encourage manufacturers and media to increase their efforts to educate consumers about saving energy with their game consoles and other home electronics. Help save the planet and have a happy Earth Day from Retrevo!
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About the Report
The Retrevo Gadgetology Report is an ongoing study of people and electronics from the consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo.com. The data for this report came from a study of online individuals conducted in March 2010. The sample size was just over 400 distributed across gender, age, income and location in the United States. Most responses have a confidence interval of 6% at a 95% confidence level. |
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