We tested the 'box using Extech's MA200 power meter, which gives real-time power consumption results. It turns out that the Xbox 360 draws about 160 watts of power, over twice as much as the original Xbox, which draws 74 watts, and the PlayStation 2, which draws about 50. In fact, the great white beast chomps down more electricity than almost every piece of living room electronics we tested, including the JVC RX-D702 A/V receiver, the Denon DVD-3910 DVD player, and a DirecTV HD TiVo. The only pieces of A/V gear that draw more power than the 360 are big-screen high-definition TVs.

Playing Xbox 360 for an average of four hours a day will eat up about 233 kilowatt-hours per year. Depending on where you live, that's an annual bill of $10 to $35 for the Xbox 360 alone. Of course, the Xbox 360 isn't as big a power hog as a refrigerator or an oven, but it uses more than double the electricity of any other game console on the market. The Xbox 360 may be twice as pretty as its predecessor, but it's also twice as hungry.

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