Xbox 360 needs to feed
A few months ago my wife urged me to purchase a little gadget called a Kill-a-watt meter, it's a little thing you plug in line between the wall outlet and the power cord to see how much power something is pulling. Maybe not as fancy as some other models that can create charts, but pretty usable anyways.
When we got it we plugged it into a bunch of things and generally probably helped save a penny or two here and there. For example the TV/DVD/Alarm Clock all plugged into a power strip in the guest bedroom that nobody was using. So back in February I read this article via Kotaku regarding power consumption and the "next-gen" consoles that really got my thinking about the Xbox 360 I have. So I slapped the meter on it and these are the results I got.
Just having the Xbox 360 plugged into the wall alone, not even turned on, pulls 2 watts. That's 2 watts, 24 hours a day, 365 hours a year. Based on a kW hr price of $.07149 (the current from Com-Ed) that adds up to $12.35. That's 12 bucks I'm paying to have the privilege of seeing a yellow light on the rather large power supply. As a result of this I unplug it now when not using it, I like to think of it as if somebody offered me $10 for free...I'd take it, so why not do a little bit to avoid spending it.
So if just having it plugged in is costing us money how much does running it cost? Well again assuming a kW hr cost of $.07149, if I played it for 5 hours a day, 30 days a month, and for 365 days it would end up with a total of $180.15. That's with an average of it pulling 150watts.
Now playing video games is one thing, but Microsoft is pretty big on it's IPTV push lately. You an download HD movies to the Xbox 360, and even television shows like Survivor and South Park. Now while these often come with perks some people might now have (480p...no commercials) they still need to be viewed using the Xbox 360, which of course means it's on and consuming power. So the previous value of $180 dollars is still valid for watching television, I think 5 hours is a fair number to use. But what I was really curious about was the comparison between the Xbox 360's power consumption, and the power consumption of our Dish Network 522 Dual tuner DVR.
As it turns out the DVR pulls 32 watts at all times, on or off (to always be in standby so it can record shows), which means it has a yearly cost (using 5 hours per day as a base, and assuming it was turned off the other 19 hours in the day) of $41.18. That means it's more than 4x more expensive to watch television using the Xbox 360 as a DVR...which I think is huge news especially with the recent release of the Elite model (which I won't get into for other reason, aside to say that not having HD or wireless built in really makes the moniker elite seem moronic). Couple that with the fact that when comparing the usage of a typical TV remote to the controls on the 360, the remote will always win out as more user friendly, and you have what I consider to be a pretty big nail in the coffin.
Microsoft desperately wants the 360 to be everything, including a DVR, but have they really thought everything through? I've only really touched on the power consumption, and not even the level of BTU's the unit puts off. But what about one more final power consumption related observation.
Recently the 2007 spring update released a new feature that I was really excited about, it's called low power consumption mode, and coupled with auto shut off it's a long overdue option. Basically it allows you to start a download of something (game demo, TV show, whatever) and then shut the console off. The front light will blink once every 10 seconds or so, and your download will chug along merrily. Meanwhile your display is off, as is your controller. It all sounds perfect, but how much power does it continue to pull while in "low power mode"?
75%
The Xbox 360 still manages to pull 113 watts while in low power mode. Now if this is functionality that has been shoehorned in where it wasn't designed to be then great, hey anything is better than 100% power consumption. But really should they still call it "low power mode"....why not "reduced power mode" or something a little bit more...well less misleading? Of course I suspect that "medium-high power mode" got voted right the heck out.
Comments
That is so cool. Where did you get the kill a watt thingy?
Posted by: Rick | May 17, 2007 10:30 AM
They are made by P3 International. This links to their product page. http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-HG.html
Last search I did on google showed them in numerous places including Amazon.
Posted by: haydenl | May 17, 2007 03:06 PM
I purchased it off amazon.com for under 30, but you could always borrow it if you wanted next time you guys stop by.
Posted by: Dennis Judd![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.dennisjudd.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 17, 2007 03:09 PM
Why the constant negative tone toward the 360? I dont mind this article nor it's conclusion, what I do mind is your constant hatred of the 360 throughout. You remind of a fucking liberal always bitching about George Bush because apparantly they cant think about anything else 24/7 but George Bush.
You're a fucking PS3 and or Wii fanboy,and I'm tired of you shits. I can read an article and in 2 seconds I know the heart of the writer.
And you had to take a shot at the Elite. How exactly does it not have "HD" built in by the way? What does that mean? Hi Def? Err. what? Hard Drive? Wrong again obviously.
PS3, which I'm sure you're a fanboy of, pulls more power than 360 BTW, it's been tested. Why dont you go ahead asnd write that little nuggest of truth in your article. Somehow, there seems to be no mention of it, which is odd. So much for Sony's brilliant engineering.
Also how the fuck did you decide the DVR is only on 5 hours a day, when your own article states it must be on standbye to record shows? Shouldn't it be more like 24 hours a day? I'm 100% sure you dont go around unplugging your DVR when it's not recording, so why did you lie and say it's only on 5 hours a day so you could make 360 look worse? That's all you were trying to do because of your deepseated hatred of 360.
Also, the whole 360 on 5 hours a day is total bullshit. You play your 360 FIVE FUCKING HOURS A DAY?? That's absurd. That's like on from 7PM to 12PM EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Including weekdays, which probably involve some sort of work and/or school for most people. And you dont watch a movie on 360 (which would be 1.5 hours BTW) every night either. In fact I'd be surprised if it's once a week, leaving only 6 days of not watching movies on it per week. So if you play the thing 5 hours EVERY SINGLE NIGHT WITHOUT FAIL, I sincerly hope you've beaten every single game ever made for it by now. I mean, think about how ridiculous 5 hours is, say you feel sick or go out and dont plat it at all one day. That means you'd have to play it ten hours the next just to maintain your average. This essentially means you can never miss a day, ever, for any reason, basically.
So yeah, 5 hours per day average, total bullshit designed to make the 360 look worse and you know it. Now, it might be a reasonable average for PS3 since that global warming causing HOG can run the useless never cured a disease PR campaign called folding 24/7, and I'm sure many people do.
Like I said, I dont have one problem with this article or pointing out the low power mode isn't (if indeed true) I do have a problem with your obvious 360 deep seated hatred of a plastic object throughout the article. It's illogical and please just fucking stop it. 360 did not kill your dog nor baby, I promise, even though you act like it. STFU, and go buy a PS3 then.
I mean really, who the FUCK asked for your opinion of the Elite? But you just had to share your negativity, eh? You dont need wireless by the way, go buy a $10 fucking wireless bridge if it means that much to you (which of course it doesn't, it's just a useless bullet point PS3 happens to have, hence why you did your work pimping sony's $600 gimpbox.) Oh and btw, I'd rather have something actually useful like a 120 GB HDD (60 GB bigger than Sony's largest, which is rather small at $600) than the useless shit 1% of the population uses like built in wireless or Blu_Gay. Have fun paying for that when 99% of people dont want it, but Sony crams it down their throat anyway so they can make more corporate billions on the consumers back.
Posted by: Bill jones | May 17, 2007 07:12 PM
wow.
you put so much effort into that I just had to approve it despite you being wrong on a lot of points.
1. HD = HD drive, you know the new format that Microsoft is supporting to fight Sony's Bluray.
2. Not a big fan of the PS3
3. 5 hours was an arbitrary number, use 3 if you so wish. The ratio will still be roughly the same and the whole concept was based off the 360 as a DVR (ala IPTV).
4. The Elite truly was a lackluster offering. Simply looking up the meaning of the word in the dictionary, and the comparing the feature set of the 360 should make anyone wonder how they could dare call that Elite. It's pure marketing bs, and honestly a half hearted reach around.
I like my 360, in fact I just got done playing it. But liking something doesn't necessarily mean excusing some things of it that could be better. But really my post was more about power consumption and how people might not realize how some things are power hogs.
Posted by: Dennis Judd![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.dennisjudd.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 17, 2007 11:18 PM