Microsoft's Xbox power-saving mode saves nearly $40 a month in the UK

Xbox users in the UK or Europe, it's time to see which power mode the game console is using. Because in the UK alone, the price of energy cap has soared by 80%. Rising energy costs in the UK or Europe mean that the main unit's Instant On standby mode can cost up to £5 more for many households.

Microsoft offers two power modes on the Xbox console. Instant On puts Xbox One S and Xbox Series S/X consoles in standby mode, consuming between 11-13 watts (depending on model), allowing gamers to resume gaming immediately. By comparison, Power Save mode consumes only about 0.5 watts, but it means users must fully boot the Xbox before resuming gaming.

While Microsoft has made energy-saving mode the default setting for Xbox game consoles released since March, millions of Xbox One S and Xbox Series X / S game consoles will use the more convenient Instant On model. This can cost a lot over time. If users keep the Xbox Series X in Instant On standby mode 24 hours a day, the monthly energy use will total about £4.93 (about 39.19 yuan) based on the upcoming UK price cap (52p per kWh).

Even older Xbox One S consoles consume around 11 watts in Instant On mode, so that's £4.18 a month, while an Xbox Series S costs £3.80 a month based on 10 watts of Instant On usage. Enabling energy-saving mode on any Xbox console will reduce usage to less than 20p per month. Of course, using an Xbox console to stream movies or play games will also have different rates of energy consumption.

While Power Save Mode does mean cold booting the Xbox every time you turn it on, Microsoft has recently sped up boot times for its consoles. The Xbox Series X boot process is now 5 seconds faster, and even older Xbox One model are booting faster with Microsoft's tweaks. That means users have to wait about 15 seconds from pressing the power button on an Xbox Series X/S console to playing a game, but the changes could save close to a monthly Netflix subscription.

PS4 users will also need to check which standby mode is being used. The PlayStation 4 has different types of standby, rest, and off modes, some of which include the ability to charge the console or download software updates. The default "off" standby mode uses only 0.5 watts, but other modes can use up to 3.4 watts. The PS5 uses 0.5 watts by default in power saving mode but still uses up to 2 watts when the network is enabled in rest mode.

If you're a Nintendo Switch user, don't worry. During active gaming, the Switch uses just 7 watts in TV mode, which is far less than the Xbox's Instant On standby mode. When powered off, the Switch uses up to 0.5 watts. If you're a PC gamer... well, best to pray that European energy prices will drop soon.

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