Xbox One, PS4 Waste $400 Million Annually in Standby Mode

[shiajun]

I don't get people that leave thigs on stand-by modes. It's a matter of being aware of your place in the world. Those infinitely looooooooong seconds it takes to boot up things not in stand-by are just so insignificant to your life that saving them at the cost of constant resource waste is the most clear testament to our societal "needs". In my house the only thing that stays plugged in at all times is the fridge. Not the TV, not the Router, not the stereo, not the TV, not my computer, not the microwave oven. Just the fridge. It so easy to save energy by unplugging things. A nice little habit to reduce environmental impact.

 

[-Dragmire-]

It would be nice to be able to track our electricity usage but, at least here in Ontario, power usage to hydro bill makes no bloody sense. We spent months of only using things like our laundry machines at off peak times only to see our bill increase by 40%. The bill can go up or down by over $100 with no reason for it, with the company saying, "Oh, well, we see you used far more electricity this month.". No we damn well didn't!

Sigh, anywho... I doubt the standby consumption of the consoles is something that I could track due to the BS of the hydro company I have to deal with.

 

[Ephidel]

I never use standby modes on anything. Partly why I loathe idle grinding so much.

If I'm not using it, I'll turn it off.

Money doesn't grow on trees and all that.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

See another reason to get a Wii You and piss on the Xbone. Better for your pocket

 

[Jumwa]

"Buy a Wii U! Its power friendly!"

--Nintendo, if it had a marketer with a brain

Somehow I don't think that'll be a huge marketing coup for them.

However it's little things like that I love about Nintendo. So much thought and consideration put into every aspect of their designs.

 

[1337mokro]

Hilarious.

PC's brag about how efficient their PSU's are. Nintendo makes sure that the WiiU uses less power overall for better performance.

MS and SONY? Who cares about power saving! Just make the thing consume half of what it would when it's turned on. It's not like people get billed for that electricity or it's incredibly fucking wasteful for the environment!

 

[LobsterFeng]

I love how the Wii U is more energy efficient than the Wii...

Maybe because the controller loses battery life so fast people aren't playing it for extended periods of time like you could with the Wii.

 

[Brian Tams]

"Buy a Wii U! Its power friendly!"

--Nintendo, if it had a marketer with a brain

Somehow I don't think that'll be a huge marketing coup for them.

However it's little things like that I love about Nintendo. So much thought and consideration put into every aspect of their designs.

At this point, any form of marketing would be a huge marketing coup for them.

 

[COMaestro]

For those wondering why I would leave my PS4 in standby mode, there are plenty of reasons. One, because it automatically downloads all updates as they are released. That way when I want to play a game, I don't have to wait for an update to download and install, it's already done. It also allows me to start the system up remotely using my Vita if I want to play a PS4 game remotely over the internet. Also, if I purchase content online through the Sony store while I'm at work, I can have it automatically start downloading to my devices so it's ready to go by the time I get home.

 

[Strazdas]

Misleading title. Using electricity is not same as wasting. When you light up a light at night in order to not kill yourself from being blind its not wasting electricty. neither is when your gaming because your getting enjoyment for it. And of course new consoles will take more power than old ones.

The only thing that's on in this house at night is the router, boiler, bedside clock and landline. Who leaves thing on standby? People who don't pay the house bills no doubt.

I leave my PC on during nights sometimes because its actually doing stuff for me. and i pay my own bills. I dont know about consoles, but PCs know how to drain only as much electricity as they need and dont use that much when not on load.

I don't get people that leave thigs on stand-by modes. It's a matter of being aware of your place in the world. Those infinitely looooooooong seconds it takes to boot up things not in stand-by are just so insignificant to your life that saving them at the cost of constant resource waste is the most clear testament to our societal "needs". In my house the only thing that stays plugged in at all times is the fridge. Not the TV, not the Router, not the stereo, not the TV, not my computer, not the microwave oven. Just the fridge. It so easy to save energy by unplugging things. A nice little habit to reduce environmental impact.

you are missing a problem of scale.
lets take a plastic factory, the factory uses more electricity in 1 second of its function than all of my devices could on standby. standby mode isnt the place where you can make impact cutting usage. You do know that over 60% of electricity used by housholds is actually attributed to refrigerators? we have gotten pretty good at using low wattage.
also unplugging things are often pointless effort. for example microwave being plugged in will not use any electricity (or modern ones use some for clock, which is bascially nothing in grand scale)

Hilarious.

PC's brag about how efficient their PSU's are. Nintendo makes sure that the WiiU uses less power overall for better performance.

MS and SONY? Who cares about power saving! Just make the thing consume half of what it would when it's turned on. It's not like people get billed for that electricity or it's incredibly fucking wasteful for the environment!

new consoles reminds me more and more of PCs in the 90s, more power fuck electricity bill. functionality wise its also similar. as well as 20 years old architecture. Oh, god, i see a pattern now

 

[kanetsb]

Yeah its definitely been a dedicated netflix machine as of late. It's hard to justify buying games for it when those same games will be cheaper and play better on my PC. Those exclusives are way too few and far between.

I found that for some reason, Child of Light was ~20 cents cheaper on the PS4. Other then that, my next planned power up is when Final Fantasy XV comes out.

 

[putowtin]

People it's call turning it off at the wall, seriously that's how thousands of house fires start because people don't turn stuff off/ unplug at the wall!

 

[Lightknight]

People it's call turning it off at the wall, seriously that's how thousands of house fires start because people don't turn stuff off/ unplug at the wall!

Actually, you can just turn the PS4 off at the console. You don't have to go into standby mode. I only ever leave it in standby if its downloading/upgrading something.

What's more is that the PS4 will automatically enter standby if left on without being used for too long.

So it's really not that bad at all. Assuming that the XBO has similar features, then this article should really read that people waste $400 million when given a standby feature.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

It's called, TURN THE DAMN SYSTEM OFF YOU LAZY BUGGERS!

 

[Elvis Starburst]

So many people calling others out for being idiots by not unplugging stuff...

OT: Huh, interesting. Given this article and the thread comments, maybe I'll grab another power bar when I move out and use it for some other electronics, like my TV and consoles. I connect pretty much everything to one bar right now, but I'm a lazy toss and like to keep my computer on standby. Chances are I'll fix that too. I'm grateful for this thread~

 

[Rofl Harris]

I'm confused by the graph. They don't say how long the things are operational for over the year.

Does anyone know the actual power draw of the 360 and XB1?

Sources I've seen vary, but assuming during gameplay:
XBox 360: 160 W
XBox ONE: 110 W

And for standby:
XBox 360: 2 W
XBox ONE: 18 W

Given those figures, if you play for 4 hours per weekday and 16 hours at the weekend (i.e. a reasonably heavy user) I get the following (assuming 17 pence/kWh):

XBox 360: 300 kWh (£50.92) per year if not left on standby when not in use
with an additional 14 kWh (£2.33) per year if left on standby when not in use
i.e. a total of 313 kWh (£53.25) per year for "standbyers")

XBox ONE: 206 kWh (£25.01) per year if not left on standby when not in use
with an additional 124 kWh (£21.00) per year if left on standby when not in use
i.e. a total of 329 kWh (£56.01) per year for "standbyers")

That's an extra 16 kWh (£2.72) per year for the XBox ONE over the 360, IF standby mode is used. I'm guessing that for the kind of people who leave these things on, that's a small amount to pay over the year for the convenience it brings for them. That's nowhere near the 200% increase shown on that NRDC graph. Based on my power assumptions, their figures seem to assume 6.5 hours of gameplay per week for the 360 and around 15.5 per week for the ONE. If that's correct, why are they different? I also find 6.5 hours per week (i.e. less than an hour per day) a little low for console usage. The more hours per year you play your 360/ONE, the cheaper the upgraded system becomes if you leave both on standby.

Are my figures utter garbage here, or are these data misleading?

 

[Lightknight]

So many people calling others out for being idiots by not unplugging stuff...

I'm still not sure why they're advocating unplugging the thing when there's an actual shut off option in the GUI just like there was on the PS3. It's right by standby. Is unplugging the thing really somehow easier/better than pressing the down arrow one more time before hitting X?