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The Latest-Generation Video Game Consoles: How Much Energy Do They Waste When You’re Not Playing?
Users can switch from connected standby (called “Instant-
on” on Xbox One) to “Energy Saving” mode by clicking on
the “Power Mode, Instant-on” block of text. However, the
user interface on the launch model is not intuitive: There is
no check box to indicate that this text is clickable, further
discouraging users from choosing the energy-saving mode.
Much of Xbox One’s connected high power draw may
be due to the console’s listening for voice commands: You
can wake it up just by saying “Xbox on.” But does Xbox One
really need to listen for your voice command 24/7, even
when you’re asleep in the middle of the night, out of the
house during the day, or away on vacation? Perhaps voice
command could be made to power down automatically
after a certain length of time, until the consumer wakes it up
with the controller or power button, like Amazon’s Fire TV,
which offers voice command in standby for less than 3 watts.
Microsoft could also allow users to program times when
they want the box to be listening, or even make it “smart”
so it learns when you’re likely to be home and goes to sleep
automatically when you’re not.
PS4 also offers users the possibility to change what the
console does in standby mode. By default in the United
States, PS4 is configured to be connected to a network and
to be able to charge USB devices from standby mode. In
the European Union, PS4 is shipped with both network
connection and USB charging disabled, due to the EU’s
standby regulations.
5. USB Charging from Standby: Is this an efficiency friend or foe? As just mentioned, PS4 offers an option to “Supply Power
from USB Ports.” This allows users to charge their controllers and headsets when the console is in connected standby mode.
This feature can save energy because it removes a reason why users might want to leave their console on after they have
finished using it (if users forget to turn off their console when they are done and the auto power down feature is disabled,
the console will stay in on mode and draw 90 to 140 watts continuously). However, this feature adds 5.5 watts to connected
standby (using 8.5 watts instead of 3 watts), meaning that it is responsible for more than half of PS4 standby power. USB
charging is enabled by default and may consume more energy annually than it saves. Other products, such as some laptops,
are able to keep their USB ports live and ready to charge for less than 1 watt. To deliver on its promise to save energy by
allowing users to power down after they have finished playing, USB charging from off mode needs to draw no more than 1
watt additional power in standby when no USB devices are actually charging.
Xbox One has live USB ports in both off and connected standby modes. However, the Xbox One controller cannot charge
in these modes. This defeats the purpose of this feature and will lead some users to keep their console on just to charge their
controller, wasting a lot of energy in the process.
The Wii U demands less than 1 watt in connected standby. In this mode, it is able to wake up, check for software updates,
download and install any updates, and go back to standby. This is best practice and is achievable on the other two consoles.
6. Off: Both the PS4 and Xbox One have real off modes that consume less than 1 watt, but unless users disable the connected
standby mode in the settings menu, the consoles will never enter real “off” mode. For modeling purposes, we assumed that
10 percent of users disable connected standby, which corresponds to consoles spending approximately 2 hours per day in off
mode on average.
Default standby configuration of Xbox One
Standby configuration on PS4