One of the issues related to game consoles, considered by many to be rather peripheral, is the energy consumption of the devices. Until recently, the matter was looked at with little interest but as hundreds of thousands of consoles ship out every month, the discussions began including the topic.

According to a study, conducted by an Australian consumer group called Choice, video game consoles such as PlayStation 3 by Sony can add to their users’ bills about $250 a year, which represents more than five times what a refrigerator consumes over the same period of time.

 The consumer group also gave information about the Nintendo Wii, which is the U.S. market’s best seller and presents an extremely low power usage, close to one-tenth of the energy used by Sony’s PS 3. Starting with April 2008, more than 700,000 Wii consoles have been sold across the country.

StateNews quoted Mr. Christopher Zinn, a spokesman for Choice, talking about the study and what the group hopes to accomplish with it. According to his statement, they are trying to make people think a little more about the effects of big electrical consumption and make them understand that there is a significant difference between keeping a console on all day long and keeping it on standby.

The same rules that apply to the consoles also apply to every other electrical device owned by the everyday consumer, as amplifiers, CD players, DVD players, TVs, speakers, computers and many others should be put on standby, or better yet, turned off, every time it is not in use. The issue still demands a lot of exposure and coverage in order for people to understand the problem and do something about it.