About Watts Up Gaming

Why this site exists

When energy bills shot up, lots of articles appeared about console running costs. Most used one fixed price that went out of date within months. This site works things out from published power measurements and today's electricity rate for your region, so the numbers stay current.

It's independent. We're not linked to any console maker, PC brand or energy supplier.

How we calculate

Cost per hour = power draw in watts ÷ 1,000 × your price per kWh. A 210 W PS5 at 26.32p per kWh costs 0.21 × 26.32 = 5.5p for each hour of play. Monthly costs use 365 ÷ 12 days. We don't include the daily standing charge, because you pay that whether you play or not.

Where the electricity price comes from

Each time you visit, the site loads the current electricity unit rate for your region from Octopus Energy's public tariff data, for its standard variable tariff (Flexible Octopus), paying by Direct Debit. Standard variable tariffs are limited by the Ofgem price cap, so the rate changes when the cap does, on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October. "UK average" is the average across all 14 regions. Economy 7 day and night rates come from the same source.

If the rate can't be loaded, we fall back to the Ofgem price cap average of 26.32p per kWh from 1 October 2026 (Uswitch, Ofgem). Fixed tariffs and other suppliers differ, so type in the rate from your bill for the most accurate answer.

Spotted a mistake?

Real-world power use varies from game to game and model to model. If you've measured your own console or PC with a plug-in energy monitor and found something different, we'd like to hear about it. Get in touch.