Those of us who do not know the differences between the three consoles. Could someone please help me out with this question. Check out this article: http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-356-1.htm

The article link shows the differences in console power consumptions for idle, standby and game play.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have your parents to pay the electricity bills. Please take into consideration what impact your electricity consumption could have upon the environment.

The 40GB PS3 uses a maximum power of 280Watts, was at first 380Watts with the 90nm Cell. WII only 45Watts, 360 I don't know as I don't have a 360 so can't check the manual or the back of the console. Though the PS3 suppose to consume to most power of all three when playing, the WII suppose to consume the most when the console is in stand-by on 24h service (orange light on power button). In full stand-by (red light on power button) it suppose to consume the same as a PS3 in standby, around 1watt.

Therefore I never leave the PS3 on 24h or else I'll get a stroke when I receive the electricity bill.

 Wow the PS3 uses between 6 to 8 times more power than Wii. All depends on which model of PS3 you own.

Yes, that's right, all you need to do is check your manual of your PS3 or the bottom of your WII. Therefore I never leave the PS3 on 24h and as soon as another Sku comes with an even smaller cell and therefore much lower power consumption, I'll get myself an other PS3.

PS2 compared to the Wii in power consumption? I guess they would be similar.

Heres a list of various consoles and their power usage.

http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/A4AD9C07-FA82-4A0F-B613-22157A836DCD/

My PS2 says 50Watts, but that's the European version and the oldest version. My Japanese version back then (its dead now) said 39Watts. If I'm not mistaken the Slim versions consume even less power than that. So yeah, basically about the same as the WII and also the same as the Gamecube.

Here's the actual article, keep in mind the new 40GB use about 135 watts at peak power.

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-356-1.htm

I'm not sure about the actual power consumption, but in some tests they made for 360, it used 170W. Wii transformer unit gives out 36W, so it uses less than that, WiiConnect on while standby, it uses less than 5W (i can make a test with Wii, since i have a meter for it). And in comparision to GC, it had 39W transformer.
And if i recall, PS3 had 480Watts transformer unit.

Also certain peripherals require power, some get their power from the console, some from the grid and some from batteries.