Saving energy with consoles and PC: this is how you do it


"Exploded" view of the Xbox Series S console.

Game consoles may not consume as much energy compared to other devices in the house, but you can still save quite a bit of energy. That also applies to the PC. Below are some ways to do this.

Regardless of the hardware at home, there is always a good tip that gamers can use to prevent unnecessary power consumption: unplug the power cord. If you use a power strip, remove the main plug from the wall socket. This way you can be 100% sure that all devices are completely turned off when you are not using them – although they can of course not download updates in the background. Per console you also have a few other options with which energy saving is an option.

Saving power on Xbox

When the Xbox Series X and Series S are plugged in and turned on for the first time, they operate in Standby mode by default. That means the Xbox is on standby, downloading games and updates in the background. The console can also stream games to your smartphone. This also means that the device consumes more power: ten to thirteen watts. (Watt is the unit of power and one watt is equal to 1 joule per second, which is useful for this article.) That’s a lot more compared to the power saving mode: 0.4 to 0.5 watts. During gaming, the Series X consumes 153 watts, compared to 74 watts on the Series S.

xbox

Reason enough to take a look at the settings related to energy saving. Open the settings application and press in the menu on the left General. Bottom right now says Power Mode and Boot. In the middle row you choose the mode of your choice: Standby or Energy Saving. Keep in mind that the second option disables game updating and streaming, but you choose the most environmentally friendly and energy-saving option. On the right it also says: If the Xbox is off, turn off storage. If you do choose the most energy-efficient option, then also check the box on the right.

Finally, on this page you can determine how long it takes for the Xbox to turn itself off after absence and how long it takes for the console to turn off after media use. Furthermore, you can always turn off the Xbox completely with the button on the front. You hold it down for thirty seconds. That is also the best method when the Xbox has to be disconnected, for example.

Energy saving on PlayStation

Whether you have a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, it does not matter for the energy savings. Saving energy is done in the same way on both consoles. Open the Institutions and select the option System. On the PlayStation 5 you search in the menu on the left now Energy saving on. On the PlayStation 4, go to Institutions and then Power Saving Settings. By default, the PlayStation 5 is set to shut down after twenty minutes of absence from gaming. He also goes out after four hours of media streaming. With the top option in the screen you determine the time units.

Playstation 5

The second option, Features available in rest mode, is also interesting to go through. Here you set that the console charges the controllers in standby mode (or not) via the USB ports, and whether the game console is allowed to connect to the internet. If you don’t want the PlayStation 5 to connect to the internet in rest mode, it can’t download games or updates either. So that is a consideration when saving energy is important to you. It is also possible to set the time after which the controllers switch off automatically. The less often you have to charge it, the less energy it costs in the long run.

With the PS5 you may also save some energy when you use the physical button on the console. The same goes for the PS4. Keep the button pressed until you hear a beep a few times to make sure it’s completely off. That is useful to know when you have to disconnect the power. In standby, the PS5 consumes 5 to 7 watts, and when it is updated, that consumption increases to 15 watts. If you take the console into use, the consumption is 200 watts.

And the Nintendo Switch?

The Nintendo Switch has a power consumption of six to seven watts (OLED model versus 2019 version). Media streaming consumes five to six watts, while the system consumes 0.3 (maximum 0.5) watts in sleep mode and off. The different Nintendo Switch models all have a sleep mode, which can be set to 1, 3, 5, 10 and 30 minutes. In TV mode, that’s 1, 2, 3, 6 or 12 hours, even. You set things up via the Institutions and the option Sleep mode.

Nintendo Switch

PC users

For PC users, there are many types of hardware and variables and we’ll keep the tips a bit more general. For example, disconnect as many devices as possible when you’re not using them, so they don’t draw power unnecessarily. But also check the options for saving energy on your operating system.

Windows users then go to the Settings app > System > Power management and sleep mode. Here you set when the system and the screen turn off. Are you going away from home for a while? Then unplug the computer; that way you can be sure it’s off. MacOS users go to System Preferences > Energy mode. One last general tip for laptop users: only use the charger when you are actually charging the laptop. Otherwise, the system will consume an unnecessary amount of energy throughout the day.

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