Game Systems use lots of power.

[Electron Pump]

  This latest electric bill covered the week of Spring Break. It was over the top. Normally our bill runs around a hundred bucks. This bill was for $260.

  We were baffled. The rates diddnt go up. What was different? Well the kids stayed up all hours of the night and day playing that X-BOX. Well I went and looked at the label on the power supply and it said 120v-127v@ 5.8amps. Thats 736.6 watts. My 27" TV is 110watts and I thought it was a power eater. I could have ran almost seven tvs around the clock for what those kids cost. They could pay for a new game system for what a coupple monts electricity costs to operate the game.

  So much for cuttin back on energy consumption.

[sPuDd]

Its not quite that simple Electron Pump. I doubt an X-box draws 700+Watts. However, with kids indoors, the X-box, TV, etc it will add up to greater power consumption.

The 120V @ 5.8amps thing is some kind of peak estimate, probably under startup conditions for the power supply. Its more for rating circuit protection than estimating consumption. Use a cheap power meter to find the TV & console power usage.

sPuDd..

[Electron Pump]

  Well maybe so. I know Yahoo new had a story on how much power these game consoles used confirming my story. And the power supply "black box" for this thing is huge. 4" wide 3" tall and a foot long. Weighs at least four pounds. The thing is bigger than my inverter.

[TomW]

pump;

Well, rather than guess why not buy yourself a kill-a-watt meter and end the mystery?

I got one delivered for under $25 US a couple weeks ago. Sure demystified a lot of my power consumption "guesses".

This is a link to it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001&Tpk=kill-a-watt

My other answer would be "They do need to be plugged in and they can be unplugged".

I have turned into my parents. Running about turning stuff off, hiding cords, etc. Hehe.

Oh, be sure the power brick is unplugged or turned off at the power strip when not actually in use. Most of that stuff has a fair draw even when the device is "off".

Tom.

[zap]

Maybe my math is wrong but...

The average price of electricity in the US is 2008 was around $0.11kwh.

At that price, $160 would buy you 1455kwh.

Even drawing the full 737watts, that represents 1974 hours of play... or 82 days.

If your rate is $0.20kwh it's still 800kwh, representing 1085 hours of play, or, 45 days.

Sounds to me like they were also giving the toaster oven a good work out toasting hot pockets and tater tots!  Maybe they took the xbox and played it outside every night and forgot to shut the door behind them?

[jonas302]

Wow they sure sucked up the power you will have to charge a door fee nest year(:

or work on a couple of ped gens..

[Electron Pump]

  I thought I had a better eye on the usage here. I'm going to keep a close look at things around for a little while. Make sure it aint something like me shutin up shop and leaving the welder running all night.

[tmccar]

What about Playstation - does it use less power than the Xbox?

Tom

[Electron Pump]

  The yahoo report I believe said the Play Station was the worst of all the game systems. I sure would have paid more attention to the story, knowing what I know now. Maybe there is an archive of the story somewhere. I dont know, Consumer Reports or something.

[electrondady1]

when they move out and get jobs i'm sure they will send you a check!!

[zap]

Wow electrondady1... you're experience with kids is much different from mine!  : )

[RandomJoe]

Well, if you can get them to accept the "lousier" graphics, you could get them a Wii!  (I'm not hard to please - Mario Karts is all the "action" game I require!)  I measured mine, and it pulls a whopping 15W while running!

In my case, it's the other end that's the problem.  Mine feeds audio to a stereo amp that pulls 50W at idle and a projector that pulls 200W on "economic" mode!  Still, can't beat playing on a 11 foot screen with room-filling sound.