Compared to basically every other appliance you have plugged in at home, the Playstation 3 sucks up more juice. That's according to a new study by Australian consumer agency Choice, which found that when a PS3 is running, it sucks up five times more energy than a refrigerator. If you leave it on all the time for something like Folding@Home, you're looking at an energy cost of nearly $250 a year.


The Xbox 360 isn't all that much better, using 23.57kWh per week when idling compared to the PS3's 31.74kWh. The Wii, on the other hand, is downright dainty in comparison, using only 2.97kWh per week when idling, less than 10% of the energy used by the PS3.

It's all a good lesson to simply turn off your console, whatever it may be, when you aren't using it. I'm not one to disparage the good work done by Folding@Home, but if you leave your console cranking away on it all the time you'll spend enough to go out and buy a Wii by the time a year is up. [Choice via GadgetLab]