Keeping your new console on stand by for a quick start up can be a costly decision. This is the conclusion drawn by NRDC after having conducted extensive testing and analyses of the power consumption of the new generation of video game consoles.
Xbox One is the biggest culprit of the three consoles. Largely due to listening for voice commands when in stand by. PlayStation 4 comes in second place, and if you use the console to charge your controller in stand by it will require lots of power.
"Gamers shouldn't be locked into higher electric bills for the lifetime of their consoles just because manufacturers haven't optimized the performance of their products," said Pierre Delforge, NRDC director of high-tech energy efficiency, whose team performed the testing. "This wastes energy and money, and causes unnecessary pollution from power plants.
"But if Microsoft and Sony follow NRDC's recommendations, they could cut the new consoles' electricity use by one-fourth beyond current projections through software and hardware optimizations, saving U.S. consumers $250 million on their annual utility bills and enough energy to power all the households in San Jose, America's 10th-largest city," he said.
Nintendo on the other hand are given a thunbs up for their Wii U that actually consumes less energy than its predecessor. NRDC have analysed the new consoles and calculated their effects on power bills by assuming how many consoles will be sold of the next few years. They estimate that the energy consumption is up 2-3 times compared to PS3 and Xbox 360.
This is also something we found notable - "The PS4 and Xbox One use 30 to 45 times more power to stream a movie than dedicated media players (such as Apple TV or Google Chromecast)".
You can read the full report here.
Our recommendation - turn off your consoles fully when you're not playing.