If you’re an Xbox owner in the UK or Europe, it’s time to check what power mode your console is using. With energy costs soaring across the UK and Europe, immediate standby mode for consoles could cost many households up to £5 a month next month as the power cap on prices rises by 80 per cent in the UK alone.
Microsoft offers two power modes on its Xbox consoles. Instant On allows Xbox One S and Xbox Series S/X consoles to draw 11-13 watts (depending on model) in standby mode and allows gamers to resume gaming immediately. By comparison, power saving mode only uses about 0.5 watts, but it requires you to turn your Xbox on completely before you can play again.
Whenever Microsoft makes Power Saving Mode the default among Xbox consoles shipped since March, millions of Xbox One S and Xbox Series X/S consoles will use the more convenient Instant On mode. Over time, this will cost quite a bit. Keeping the Xbox Series X on instant standby 24 hours a day adds around £4.93 to monthly energy use, calculated on upcoming UK maximum prices (52p per kWh). Thanks go Alex Hearn on Twitter to highlight the potential costs of Xbox Instant On mode.
Older Xbox One S consoles use about 11 watts of instant-on, which is £4.18 a month, and the Xbox Series S runs on £3.80 a month based on 10 watts of instant-on. Enabling power saving mode on any Xbox console can reduce usage by as little as 20p per month. Of course, using Xbox consoles to stream movies or play games has very different power usage rates.
Although power-saving mode means you boot up cold every time you turn on your Xbox, Microsoft has recently been speeding up boot times for its consoles. Formatting is now 5 seconds faster on Xbox Series X, and older Xbox One models also run faster with Microsoft tweaks. Pressing the power button on your Xbox Series X/S console requires waiting about 15 seconds to play a game, but those seconds can save you the equivalent of a month’s Netflix subscriptions.
If you’re a PS4 owner, it might be worth checking out which standby mode you’re in. The PlayStation 4 has a variety of standby, rest, and shutdown modes, some of which include the ability to charge consoles or download software updates. The default is “Off.” Standby consumes only 0.5 watts, but other modes can use up to 3.4 watts. The PS5’s default power saving mode uses 0.5 watts, but can use up to 2 watts if the network is enabled in sleep mode. So it’s a lot less savings than switching Xbox ways, but it might still be worth it given the unpredictability of energy prices in the coming months.
If you’re a Nintendo Switch owner, you don’t have to worry. During active gaming the switch only uses 7W in TV mode, it is much shorter than the Xbox in standby mode. When turned off, the switch consumes a maximum of 0.5 watts. If you’re a fan of PC games…it’s time to pray for lower energy prices in Europe soon.
“Beer lovers. Music world. Internet fanatic. continuous. player. Typical food expert. coffee expert.”