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As a result of the rising cost of energy in the UK and Europe, it is time to take advantage of the switch modes on your Xbox.
How to save £5 when using Xbox?
If you are a lucky owner of an Xbox console and live in the UK or Europe, you should probably check what energy saving mode your console is currently set to. As a result of rising energy prices across the UK and Europe, the Instant On standby mode of the consoles could you cost up to £5 per month. This is because the energy cap on prices is increasing by an extra 80 percent in the UK alone.
On the Xbox consoles, there are two different power modes. Instant On, which allows players to rapidly restart games while keeping Xbox One S and Xbox Series S/X consoles in a standby state that uses between 11 and 13 watts (depending on the model). This mode is known as Instant On which uses lots of energy. Energy Saver mode, on the other hand, uses only about 0.5 watts of power, but it requires you to completely restart the Xbox before you can continue playing.
Even though Microsoft has made the mode known as Energy Saver the default for all Xbox consoles that have been released since March, millions of Xbox One S and Xbox Series X/S consoles are using the Instant On option since it is more convenient. This option could end up being pretty expensive in the long run.
So, if you leave an Xbox Series X in Instant On standby mode for 24 hours a day, the total monthly cost of energy consumption is around £4.93 when calculated using the new pricing caps that will be implemented in the UK (52p per kWh). On Twitter, Alex Hern brought attention to the potential drawbacks of the Instant On mode of the Xbox, and for that, we are grateful.
Even earlier Xbox One S consoles use approximately 11 watts of power when in Instant On mode, which results in a monthly cost of £4.18. In comparison, an Xbox Series S console uses 10 watts while in Instant On mode, which results in a monthly cost of £3.80.
Therefore, enabling the Energy Saver mode on any Xbox console, will reduce the monthly cost of power consumption to less than 20 pence per month. Of course this will depend on how much you use your console and what are you using it for like; streaming movies or playing games have varying rates of energy consumption, too.
Even while switching to Energy Saver mode would force you to start your Xbox from scratch each time you turn it on, Microsoft has lately made it possible for its consoles to start up much more quickly.
The Xbox One Series X now boots up in 5 seconds less time than before, and even older editions of the Xbox One are booting faster as a result of the improvements made by Microsoft. It will take around 15 seconds from the time you hit the power button on an Xbox Series X or S console until you are able to begin playing a game; nevertheless, the money you save by waiting those few extra seconds could be equivalent to the monthly cost of a Netflix subscription.
How to save on energy bills when using PlayStation 4?
If you are an owner a PlayStation 4, you should probably take a look at the standby mode that you are currently utilising. The PlayStation 4 features a variety of standby, rest, and off modes; some of these modes include the capacity to charge controllers while others allow for the downloading of software updates.
The standby mode that is “off” by default uses only 0.5 watts of power, however other modes can use up to 3.4 watts of power. The power saver mode of the PS5 consumes 0.5 watts of electricity when it is in its default state, but when networking is enabled in the rest mode, it can consume up to 2 watts. Therefore, this will save you a lot less money than changing the settings on the Xbox, but it could still be worthwhile considering the uncertainty of the market for energy in the future months.
There’s less to worry about if you’re a Nintendo Switch owner and uses your console in TV mode, active gameplay. Nintendo Switch consumes only 7 watts of power, which is a significant reduction compared to the Instant On standby mode of the Xbox One. The Switch consumes no more than 0.5 watts of power when it is turned off.
And if you play video games on a PC, you might want start hoping for the cost of energy in Europe to come down very soon.
