How Much Power Does Your Xbox 360 Use?

The standard unit of electrical energy is the kilowatt-hour (kW-h).  A kilowatt-hour is the amount of energy needed to run ten 100-watt light bulbs for an hour.  This ungainly-sounding unit is what households in the USA (at least) are billed in for electrical usage.  Here in Corvallis Oregon, USA, one kilowatt-hour of electricity costs about 7.13 cents USD.  That’s pretty cheap on a per-unit basis, but my wife and I used 1501 kW-h’s last month for a little over $100 dollars worth of power. One kilowatt-hour is also equal to 3.6 million joules, or 3.6 mega joules.

This next table lists how many kW-h’s are used by each device as described above, and also shows the usage of some common combinations:


Therefore, one hour of Rainbow Six: Vegas, using my projector, amplifier, and Xbox 360 costs me 0.3 kW-h times 7.13 cents to equal 2.139 cents.  That’s it!   If you have a TV bigger than mine, it probably draws more power than your 360 does.  Your PC certainly does.

Obviously though, the cost of your power per kilowatt-hour will vary.  For example, one Planet Xbox 360 reader let me know that his kW-h’s cost 10 cents in Kentucky, and another living in Europe quoted a cost around 11 or 12 cents per kW-h.  I’ve seen costs in Tennessee at 6.46 cents per kW-h.  To find your cost (if it isn’t listed on your power bill), you can take the total cost of your power service (excluding additional, non-varying fees) and divide it by the number of kW-h’s you used.  That will tell you how much each unit costs.

Even recharging the new wireless headset is cheap – it only takes about four hours, and consumes hardly any energy at all.  It takes less than 0.01 kW-h to entirely charge, and consumes less than one watt of power while it’s doing it.

So, how about heat? I’ve heard people say that the Xbox 360 can heat their entire house.  Well, it only gives off 50% more power than my TV, not 500% more.  It may seem like a lot more, though, because the heat the 360 generates isn’t spread out as much over a larger area, like a TV, and most of the heat is pumped out via a small, noisy fan – in other words, it’s concentrated in one small area.  So don’t believe the hype. 

Finally, some perspective: The Washing Machine.  Tell your momma to stop washing clothes – she’s using up all of the power!  Seriously, my washing machine draws 10.5 amps while it’s running, and uses .26 KWH for an entire medium load that lasts only about half an hour.  At times it hits 690 watts – clearly, this kind of device usually lives on its own circuit. Someday we may have consoles that use this kind of power, and I for one must say that I look forward to that day!