Whilst randomly googling (work is slow today) I found the interesting http://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/assets/4465...-game-consoles-power-consumption-may-2014.pdf which details the power consumption of different consoles. Then again, maybe the fact that I found this interesting is proof of how boring today is! Anyway, I have wondered in the past why consoles (and TVs, and sound systems, etc) use power when in standby mode, instead of just being turned off by default, since we're supposed to try to use less power, to save the planet. The comparison of various consoles' power usage in the following table surprised me a little. I didn't realise that the original XBox uses more power than a PS2, or that the first model of the PS3 used twice as much power as the last model. And why are the older consoles (SNES, N64, etc) shown as having a standby consumption value, when they didn't have a standby mode, they were either turned on or off? Is the standby mode in these cases defined as the console being plugged into the wall and the socket turned on, but the console turned off?
Indeed. basically, if there's a power brick in the package, power draw is measured going into that. That chart still looks a bit wonky to me though. What's "navigation" supposed to be on a SNES or N64, which did not have any kind of non-game menus? I'd have agreed to just chalking them up to a lazy author, if they didn't draw a different amount of power than the game play modes!
Well that'd be just stupid. Both in terms of the chart, and in terms of the 64 drawing more power while not even running a program.
Last time I looked, video game consoles were for gaming. This is a gaming forum so this isn't off topic The same reason as why you don't leave your mobile phone charger, laptop charger, television, DVD player etc. plugged into the mains and switched on when not in use - it's still drawing current. Unless it's got a modern energy saving gizmo built into it.
Standby mode exists because such consoles have their PSUs always on, when plugged into the mains. This is sometimes done because their power supplies are controlled via software, hence needing some power for control (i.e. ATX-like).
I guess that would depend if we were looking at the surge watts needed to get the refrigerator to temp or running watts needed to maintain temp. Good question. That I'd like to see.
