If left on all the time, some video game consoles can consume as much energy per year as two new refrigerators– that translates to a lot of wasted energy.

A 2008 study commissioned by NRDC showed that if video game consoles incorporated more user-friendly power management features, we could save approximately 11 billion kWh of electricity per year, cut our nation’s electricity bill by more than $1 billion per year, and avoid emissions of more than 7 million tons of CO2 each year.

But you don’t have to wait to start saving energy now, XBOX 360 and Sony Playstation have power-saving auto-shutdown modes which gamers can easily enable. For instructions on how to enable auto-shutdown mode on your console go to NRDC’s report “Lowering the Cost of Play” and click on the instructions links on the right.