Xbox One and PS4 are energy hogs
According to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consume much more energy than the previous generation of consoles.
"We don't have a problem with people playing games. But the problem is the amount of energy used when not playing a game," says author Pierre Delforge, NRDC's director of high-tech energy efficiency.
The report explains that while all consoles have incorporated many energy efficiency features into their designs, like automatic power-down, since the last report in 2008, the increase in energy consumption comes from new features that rely on their standby or sleep modes. The Xbox One uses 15 watts of continuous power in standby, therefore it can be turned on with a voice command, while a PC in the other hand uses less than two watts when it’s in sleep mode.
The NRDC projects that if we replace all the previous-generation consoles with the new models, it will increase energy usage by 10 billion kilowatt-hours annually, which is enough to power all homes in Houston for one year.
The Wii U was the only one of the three consoles tested to consume less energy (8% decrease) than its predecessor despite improved graphics and faster processing. It uses very little power, less than 1 watt, in standby mode.
