Even in standby mode, your game console could use 25 times the minimum power it needs – and this could silently drive up your utility bills. Idle power usage is also less environmentally friendly, which is another reason to check and fix your console’s power usage. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has said that Xbox owners in particular could be collective pay an additional $ 500 million in energy bills based on the default energy mode settings.
To be fair to Microsoft and Sony, the Xbox Series X | S and PS5 are more energy efficient when you’re streaming movies or doing less intense tasks when compared to older consoles. However, it is best to check your power settings on these consoles so as not to strain your wallet and waste energy.
Here’s how much power your consoles are using and what you can do to reduce energy bills.
How to reduce the power consumption of the Xbox Series X | S
The Xbox Series X | S ships with Instant On Power mode enabled in most regions. This allows you to use the console to stream games to your smartphone, and to update and install games when the console is in standby mode. However, the Xbox Series X | S consumes 10-13 W of energy in Instant-On mode – compared to 0.4-0.5 W when you activate the energy-saving mode.
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If you haven’t bought the console yet and saving electricity is an important factor, then the S Series has an advantage. Even when gaming, the S series (74 W) only uses half as much power as the X series (153 W). according to Microsoft. Obviously, no one buys a console just with energy savings in mind, and there are other factors that need to be considered.
Regardless of which version of Microsoft’s latest game consoles you are using, a simple adjustment of the power settings can save you a lot of money. Go to the settings on your Xbox and navigate to General> Power Mode & Start.
Under Power mode, choose save energy to make sure your console is not using more power than it needs.
This settings page is also where you can choose how long you want to wait for the Xbox to turn itself off. The minimum is 1 hour of inactivity when gaming and 2 hours of inactivity when streaming music or movies.
Of course, you can go to “Power Mode & Start” in the settings and select it Complete shutdown to turn off your Xbox completely. Once you’ve done this, you can unplug it just to be absolutely sure no electricity is wasted.
How to reduce power consumption on PS4 and PS5
On the PlayStation 5, you can reduce the console’s power consumption by using the settings and go over to System> Energy saving mode. On the PlayStation 4 you can also find these options under Settings> Energy saving settings.
Both the PS4 and PS5 have a menu called Set the time before the PS5 (or PS4) goes to sleep. By default, this is set to put your console to sleep after one hour of inactivity while gaming and four hours of inactivity while streaming movies. You can shorten the time to reduce power consumption.
Both Sony consoles also have an option called Features available in idle mode. Here you can choose whether you want to allow the console to charge your controllers via the USB ports when you have kept the PS5 in sleep mode. You can also choose whether the console can connect to the Internet while in sleep mode. If you turn off Internet access, games or updates cannot be downloaded when not in use.
With the PS5 you can Set the time before the PlayStation controllers turn off. You can quickly choose how long to wait for the DualSense controller to turn off. If you shorten the time here, the battery life of your controller will be extended.
Finally, you can shut down the PS5 by pressing the PS button on the controller once and selecting Power> switch off PS5. The corresponding option on a PS4 can be accessed by holding down the PS button on the controller and then selecting Turn off PS4. This initiates a full shutdown, as opposed to Hibernation, which puts the console in a low-power state that still uses a small amount of power.
