Gaming consoles, plasma TVs big energy users.

For all those Mums and Dads out their who have kids, Do you realize just how much your gaming console is costing you annually just in electricity? I found an article recently that says gaming consoles such as the Sony Playstation 3 can burn up to five times more energy than a medium sized refrigerator, and a Sony Playstation 3 switched on but not in use, could cost almost US$200 a year in electrical bills, whereas a medium sized refrigerator would cost less than US$40 a year.

Keep reading to find what else is costing you the most.

Plasma television's were also one of the top energy users, which is said to be consuming more than four times as much energy as a traditional analogue television set.

The average desktop PC, tested independently of its monitor, was third on the list of top energy consumers. However, the PC's Apple equivalent, the iMac, an all-in-one model with a built-in display, used just two-thirds of the energy consumed by a monitor-less PC.

LCD computer monitors were found to use only about half as much energy as the older (CRT) cathode-ray tube monitors.