The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently released a study regarding the power usage of consoles. During the course of the study it found that gamers who leave their consoles powered on all the time spend more than $100 a year to leave their game console idle.

At first glance this appeared to be a damning study, especially if the NRDC defined "on" as a console left in standby mode; however the actual definition of "on" for this study was leaving the console completely up and running.

The cost of leaving your console on all the time varies, but no matter which console you choose, never turning it off is costly. Leaving your PS3 on all the time will cost between $130 and $160 depending on which version you have, compared to under $15 if it is turned off when it's not being played. Similarly the Xbox 360 costs between $100 and $140 if left on all the time but under $14 if turned off when you're done. The Wii is the most power efficient; only costing $10 if left on all the time, compared to $3 if turned off when it isn't in use. Leaving it on is still wasting $7, however.

The mail carrier knows: when the envelopes from the local utilities start changing color, it's bad news. Most gas and power companies use yellow for warning, pink for impending shut-off. In an NPR interview, Andrea the mail carrier (who is not yet a figure in John McCain's campaign) talked about what she knew about the economy from her mail route. She knew, for instance, that there were many residents on her Seattle route who were constantly flirting with shut-off notices.

Today's Wall Street Journal has more solid proof, citing reports that localities such as Memphis and Pennsylvania had increased utilities shut-offs between 38% and 78% so far this year, with a New Jersey utility company making the chilling observation that it has been "diligent in our shutoff activities" in 2008.

But you hardly need independent verification; all you have to do is walk around your neighborhood and look for the door knob notices in bright colors, the closer to red, the worse off your neighbors are. Utilities are responding to the situation without remorse, considering reducing the past-due amount that will require shut-off and installing new wireless, digital meters that can be shut off remotely without extra cost for sending out a crew. (Brilliant! Power to the ... oh wait ...)

Have you seen many pink envelopes in your neighborhood? I've seen a few in mine, but it's the same houses all the time, so it hardly feels connected to the economic crisis. But with prices up everywhere, this winter could prove to be full of bright colors.

After I suggested a few low-cost ways to lower utility bills, I was hit with quite a bunch of suggestions. I researched them, and found that most were quite viable and very reasonably priced. Therefore, without further ado, here are a few (more) low-cost ways to drop your utility bill:

Ceiling Fans

The ever-ingenious Carol noted that ceiling fans are not only useful in the summer; if you reverse the direction of the fan during the winter, it actually pushes warm air back toward the ground, reducing wasted heat. In the process, it keeps the air moving, which maximizes the effect of your other heaters and baseboard heat. Having installed a few ceiling fans, I have to admit that it's a fairly involved task (set aside a couple of hours), but they are surprisingly cheap and really help keep your home liveable. Just don't put them in low-ceilinged rooms!