A group of men play XBox One games at the Game Developers Conference 2014 in San Francisco, Tuesday, March 18, 2014. The conference will run from March 17-21 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

If your energy bill has been out of control lately, it might be time to rethink the way you use your video game console.



A new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that the latest generation game consoles could cost Americans up to $1 billion annually in utility bills — $400 million of which is due to energy wasted while the machines aren’t even being used.

The NRDC analyzed energy consumption of the three most popular game consoles — Microsoft’s Xbox One, Sony’s PlayStation 4, and Nintendo’s Wii U — and found that if every household were to replace their old consoles with the new models, they would consume nearly 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

When so many of our household appliances -- from our light bulbs to our washing machines — seem to only get more energy efficient — why is it that game manufacturers are heading in the opposite direction?



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Part of the reason is that these consoles aren’t just being used for marathon video game sessions anymore. They also double as streaming devices, becoming the kind of household appliance that is constantly “plugged in” even when not in use.

“We think it’s fair that [manufacturers] provide higher performance graphics and processing speed that they would need more power, but the biggest issue we have is that nearly half of that energy is spent in standby mode,” says Pierre Delforge, NRDC director of high-tech energy efficiency.

Energy hogs

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The Xbox One and PS4 actually consume two to three times more energy per year than their predecessors, due to inefficient energy use while in standby mode.

The average Xbox One user will spend up to $180 on energy costs over the lifetime of the console, compared to the $50 its predecessor, the Xbox 360, cost. The PS4 would cost an extra $135 in utility charges over its lifetime, three times as much as the PS3, which cost $50. The Wii U was the only console that didn’t increase energy consumption. It costs users about the same as Nintendo’s previous model, the Wii, at around $30.

Nearly half the energy spent to power an Xbox One is used while it’s on standby. It would make sense to turn the whole thing off, but newer features like TV control and voice command only work when it’s on standby -- and that can use up to 72 watts of extra energy per day.

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