Another thing that occurred to me – get rid of the huge 5.1 speaker system and just get a basic but good quality 2.0 (Creative are doing some very well-reviewed 2.0 speakers these days). The way my desk is set up, it’s not like I benefit from 5.1, and for a lot of gaming I used headphones. That would considerably reduce the power used by my PC and its peripherals.

Need to get a meter though yep. Hopefully my missus can get one through her work.

Wired’s June 2008 issue had an interesting piece about gaming and power consumption. A reader asked “How can I green up my habit” in relation to his WoW addiction (‘Greenwash Thy Avatar, Warcrafter’). Wired’s Mr Know-It-All used some stats worked out in regard to “the average Second Life avatar”. He said it “requires 1248 kilowatt hours of electricity to ‘exist’ for a year – 153kwh for the servers and 1095 for your yours. In terms of carbon emissions, that’s roughly equivalent of driving 1,800 miles in a BMW 750Li.”

I’ve actually gone back to some console gaming (though I reinstalled Planetside on my PC last night ) and now that’s got me thinking about console power consumption.

A bloke called Carl Nelson studied this using a power meter last year for hardcorewar.net.

The 360 and PS3 are almost as power hungry as his PC, and while the Wii uses very little power in comparison, Nintendo have a terrible record according to Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics, where they’re “way behind” all the others. (This considers companies in “according to their policies on toxic chemicals and recycling”.)

it seems to me that your footprint is likely to be lower than average without a car and a few compromises and efforts elsewhere might just get you through this obviously trying time buddy.

There are smart meters like http://www.theowl.com/ which will help pinpoint just how much power you are drawing when gaming also, if you haven’t already, switch your electric supply to a renewable company (never mind the arguments about grid supply) like Good Energy – maybe even consider some micro generation (how bad do you want it)?? Maybe ration your gaming if your footprint is looking too big in any given month and remember working from home on your machine is another big saver – another controversial solution is carbon offsetting like at climatecare.com (I got a certificate for my web server – seems token but I NEED the server so the consumption is happening anyway – offsetting at least reduces emissions elsewhere) – I could ramble about this for a few more pages but will stop for now – keep us updated on how you get on

and hope to see you soon