We've all left our consoles on standby before, probably for years at this point. The little red light doesn't annoy us anymore, it downloads stuff while we're away, all good. However, UK energy company British Gas has come out of the woodwork to tell us all about the energy we're apparently wasting.
The firm estimates that, on average, a games console left in standby mode costs £12.17 to run over the course of a year. Other 'expensive' devices are computers at £11.22 and microwaves at a whopping £16.37. Apparently, these energy-sapping machines are "vampires" for their ability to drain power.
However, plenty of users out there are starting to question British Gas' claims. Eurogamer quoted a range of educated responses that deemed the British Gas figures straight up false, and the good folks over at Push Square have even dug a little deeper.
Going off Sony's own energy numbers, the site says a PS5 sat in standby mode doing very little would cost just £0.88 per year, and even if it was constantly downloading, that figure would only be £7.85. Both of these are a far cry from a £12.17 'average'.
In terms of Xbox, Microsoft recently improved its Energy Saver mode on Xbox consoles. The low-power mode — which is a more economic solution — can now download system updates when switched off, which previously, was a feature exclusive to the console's Instant On mode.
Do you worry about your console's power consumption? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
[source bbc.co.uk, via pushsquare.com]
Comments 22
Odd that these measurements are all in monetary cost instead of wattage used. I suppose that's just how the analysis went. PS5 hitting 350w is still absurd to me.
Also, I was unaware at how bad Microwaves are.
The study clearly stated that the testing was done in 2019, so does not refer to PS5, Series X/S or any recent updates to Xbox One.
They may gave been slammed for getting the TV part wrong but the Series X is a wasteful beast in Instant-on mode.
Microsoft state it uses 13W. That is £31.89 a year at current £0.28kWh rates JUST for leaving it in standby.
Compare that with just £1.23 a year for Energy saver mode (0.5W)
Source: Microsoft
@BionicDodo missed that. Great point.
How can energy companies criticise us at the moment when they have extortionately raised their prices 🤣 ‘here we’ve raised your gas £300 a year but here’s how to save £12’.
It’s an absolute joke 😂
I’m UK and if it involves anything British firm in rip of Britain then I tend to ignore it.
Also many environmental issue are put at the general public and all information is not given.
Go read the VOLVO all electric car vs Petrol car report, exact same cars made at the same plant, that is why they could do this study.
Because of the all electric car higher initial carbon foot print to manufacture it can in the worst take the electric car to travel 90 thousand miles before it starts to become equal on a carbon footprint level with the petrol car. As the petrol car has a lot less carbon footprint to initially manufacture.
Even best case is about 30 thousand miles, averaging around 48 thousand miles.
It all depends if you are charging with renewable electric power.
They don’t tell you that on the news or at the car show room.
@themightyant Wow, that is a big difference! I've used Energy Saver for years now, and I recommend that everyone else does too after seeing that 😳
Also I believe Push Square have it wrong. The PS5 eco-design page states that it uses up to 3.2 Watts in Rest mode (with internet connected and USB ports powered) but according to Digital Foundry and my own smart meter testing this doesn't apply when downloading updates and is actually much higher.
At launch Digital Foundry found that PS5 was using up to 36 Watts when downloading in Rest mode.
@Kezelpaso If you can believe it, the XSX was even worse at launch guzzling a whopping 29W in Instant-on mode. That's £71.13 by todays £0.28/kWh pricing thankfully they've made it better, but it's still pretty awful!
Source: Digital Foundry
@Fenbops Completely agree about the tone of the messaging (plus it has some mathematical mistakes). But that doesn't mean there isn't a valid point hidden in there too.
Many electrical devices left plugged in or on Standby DO guzzle a lot of wasted electricity. See my calculation for XSX in Instant-on above, that's £31.89 a year, now add tvs, monitors, computers, microwaves, ovens, tv boxes, speakers, chargers and more. Some are more eco-friendly than others in standby but it all adds up to potentially hundreds of pounds a year in many households.
Now multiply that by millions of households... it is a LOT of waste. Sadly it IS a real problem but it needed anyone except the energy companies to say it
@Royalblues exactly. I live near a football ground. They have all their lights on every night even when there’s no games, huge LCD monitors with images 24/7. Work out the cost of that and criticise that before coming for the working class who enjoy their small consoles at home.
I personally use Energy Saver mode on my Series X as the boot time is extremely fast vs last gen and I have 900Mb/s download, so updates are no issue.
Obviously if you want remote features, or have slow internet, it might be worth the £2.65 a month to leave it with Instant On mode.
Personally I think they look for any excuse to jump prices. Fabrication or not. All about the money.
@Dezzy70 Wait the Gretas and far left not tell full story or the truth since not meet their agendas? Say ain't so? Lol
@Fenbops
Totally agree, when you drive around industrial estates or pass car shown rooms or through high streets late at night when they all closed, they are all lights a plenty.
Then they tells us to use an LED bulb at home and cut down on heating usage etc to reduce usage.
God knows how much say Las Vegas uses every night all through the night.
Did you know the UK carbon footprint is so low it is measured in tonnes, USA and China is measured in Mega Tonnes. That mean hundreds of Great Britain’s as a country would not even make one USA let alone China as well.
I guess you could say BG has everyone all gassed up.
@Dezzy70 the UK’s global carbon footprint is now less than 1%. You can’t please the Greta’s because without anything to complain about they’ll have no jobs. One things for sure Climate Change policy is making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
@Fenbops
You are absolutely right there.
I've switched to the "Eco mode" or whatever recently. Now it does downloads and with the Series X super fast boot time there's no real need to keep using Instant On if you're not regularly using a bunch of the remote play features.
@Fenbops Agreed. They truly have no shame.
@Royalblues Absolutely agree with you. I’m sick of this virtue signalling crap from greedy morally corrupt energy companies along with the likes of Greta Thunberg and her cultist followers.
Honestly when am done playing with ps5 or Xbox series x I switch it completely it's unnecessary to leave in stand by especially with this load shedding
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