PlayStation3 And Plasma TVs Can Use More Hydro Than Fridges: Study

Here's a question that should be easy to answer: which uses more power - your fridge, your plasma TV or your video game console?

Don't be so fast with the answer.

If you believe a new survey out of Australia, it's your PlayStation 3 and that big screen in your living room.

Choice, a sort of Consumer Reports for the Down Under crowd, has come out with a study it claims shows the devices are more power hungry than consumers believe and can raise your electricity bill without you even being aware of it.

Researchers claim their tests show Sony's PS3 was the worst offender for guzzling watts, followed closely by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and your average plasma TV set. The group tested randomly chosen laptops, stereos and DVD players to make the determination.

"Our tests found that leaving a PlayStation 3 on while not in use would cost almost ... five times more than it would take to run a refrigerator for the same yearly period," the study reveals.

The numbers for the PS3 are significant. Calculated at an admittedly high rate of 15 cents per kilowatt hour, leaving the Sony game console on all the time would pull about Cdn.$250 from your wallet.

As for that big television in your living room? "The plasma TV set was also a power hungry device, consuming over four times more power than a traditional analogue set. The average desktop computer was third on the list," Choice concludes, noting many people like to leave their PCs on all the time. The cost for those who do really computes. They've found it to be as high as $124 annually.

Other findings: a Mac uses less power overall than a windows-based machine; an LCD monitor is better at saving you money than an old cathode ray tube monitor; and the Nintendo Wii costs only Cdn.$32 to keep running on idle.

The group concedes it's not likely most people leave all their machines on 24 hours a day, 7-days a week for a year, but it's trying to make a point about just how much juice the devices would consume if they did. And it's something consumers should think about before they walk away from one of them while it's still powered up.

Ontario charges much less than 15 cents a kilowatt hour, of course. Current rates between May and October are 5 cents for the first 600 kilowatt hours a month and 5.9 cents once you go over that.

But with the province now heading into high peak demand season and air conditioning likely to come online in significant numbers over the next few days as temperatures and humidex values soar into the 30s, the group is trying to show that every little bit counts.

Their suggestion: when you don't need them, turn off the devices at the set and get them out of standby mode. While they don't use a lot of juice in this kind of electronic stasis, it can add up if you have a lot of machines around your home doing nothing but waiting to be turned back on. 

They may take a little longer to come back when you want them, but they could take a powerful amount off your next hydro bill.

See the figures here

Toronto Hydro energy saving tips

Photo credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images