Question of the Day: Do You Leave Your Game Console Running?

A recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has revealed that video game console usage across America stands at approximately 16 billion kilowatt-hours per year—which is roughly the amount consumed by the entire city of San Diego. This is only a rough estimation, but there is no doubt that many of us waste a significant amount of energy when we leave our consoles running for hours on end. Even Energy Star has recognized the problem and begun setting standards on energy consumption for these devices. Obviously, the short-term solution to the problem would be to save your game and shut off the system when you are done—but it's a bad habit that is hard to break. So, my question is: do you leave your game console running when you are not playing?

http://gizmodo.com/5094411/question-...onsole-running

I used to leave my PS3 running all the time. Almost 24/7 contributing to the Folding@Home protein folding simulations for the betterment of science. Then, my PS3 died due to a power failure on the unit.

I had the PS3 replaced fast and free by SONY but I no longer trust leaving it on all the time. I don't know if the Folding@Home was part of the cause but I know it uses a lot of CELL power and the cooling fan runs faster when its running. I was hoping that would not cause wear & tear.

I will try again with the protein folding because a lot of exciting stuff can come out of that sort of research. But if another PS3 dies I will be mega pi$$ed.

I do it a lot with my 360. Usually for no longer than 1>4 hours.

Once the noise pisses me off enough I turn it off, or continue playing :p

ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies

I don't but my wife does all the time with the Wii and the Playstation 2. When she gets to a point that she can't figure out but there's no save point or checkpoint it stays on. Sometimes all day.

I shut my systems off after each use. I can't imagine why you wouldn't. Not so much because of power usage. I just don't want my system to overheat and die.

I usually don't leave them on while not playing them. I even unplug or turn off the surge protector when I'm not planning on using them for a while. I have a hard enough time sleeping with the little red/green/blue lights I can't turn off or unplug without resetting clocks.

One more reason to play PSP, it resumes the game when I turn it on (usually, unless I'm on some homebrew games).

I usually leave my PS3 on for three or four days with Folding@Home running with the monitor off. But at some point afterward I usually decide that the thing needs some rest and cut it off for a few days straight and do something else.
Honestly though, I don't see why anyone would just keep their system on all day otherwise with no purpose or reason. (I mean electricity isn't exactly free!)

never

lets face it, consoles are cheap pieces of crap, designed to fit the current styling in a small compact package

your old game systems would burn out, the news ones do the same both because of poor ventilation, sub par electronics designs, and a very short life expectancy (ie: compared to a pc who may have to run 24/7 for over a decade un maintained physically)

if you want to protect your investment treat it like it is, a toy, put it away when your done playing with it

when im done playing my 360 I turn it off but sometimes my laptop stays on the whole day