Do I really need to physically unplug my Xbox 360 when not in use?

December 7, 2008 9:32 AM

On one of the morning "news" shows (Today, GMA, one of those, don't remember which), a guest recently said that an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 will use just as much power turned off as it does when in use - that you have to physically unplug them to get them to stop draining the juice. The Wii, it was said, is fundamentally different, has some kinda internal widget that makes it more energy efficient. Any truth at all to this?
posted by jbickers to Technology (24 answers total)

Here's a review. The last page covers idle and standby modes.
posted by Science! at 9:38 AM on December 7, 2008

I'd have to say no. Unless they're actually doing something when turned off, even if it's just generating heat, they aren't pulling any juice.
posted by Solomon at 9:38 AM on December 7, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks, Science, but this person wasn't talking idle or standby - they were asserting that fully powered down, the machines continue to use tons of energy.
posted by jbickers at 9:52 AM on December 7, 2008

jbickers, look at the link Science! sent you. The last page says "Power Consumption in Standby: Now here is something you can't avoid; power draw while the console is turned off. Don't expect anything significant here though; these results are included just to complete the article."

In this case, "standby" refers to what you or I would call "off" in the sense that you push the power button and it turns off. In order to keep the LEDs on and respond to power-on signals from the remote, "off" is really standby for a whole host of electronic devices, and they draw a small amount of power. Science!'s link shows how small (~$0.20/month).
posted by Partial Law at 10:00 AM on December 7, 2008

Here's a website that compares the costs of the different consoles, while playing, idle or off (and it defines 'off' for each of those consoles).
posted by Ms. Next at 10:00 AM on December 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

The Xbox 360 can download demos and other files while "turned off". Maybe that's causing the confusion?

I have a Kill-O-Watt and will test the claims right now - give me 20 minutes to check and post back.
posted by schwa at 10:00 AM on December 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Game consoles never waste energy they just become space heaters.
posted by I Foody at 10:00 AM on December 7, 2008 [2 favorites]

If the hard drive spins down when it's "off" then it will be using less power.
posted by Class Goat at 10:02 AM on December 7, 2008

There is no such thing as "fully powered down". With modern electronics, when you turn the power off, it goes into standby mode. In standby mode, the devices have to draw a small amount of current so that they can detect when you've pressed the power button on the controller or console. That takes about 1-2 watts, which is about $2/year in electricity.

The guy on TV probably meant to say idle, which is when they are turned on but not being used for anything. Or perhaps he didn't know what he was talking about at all.
posted by helios at 10:06 AM on December 7, 2008

This is with an XBox 360 "Elite" (or whatever the package is called):

Unplug Xbox, plug into Kill-O-Watt: 0 watts
Waiting a few minutes, light on AC adaptor is on: 2 watts
Turn Xbox on, waiting at dashboard: 115 watts
Playing COD5: Menu system, waiting for game to load: 110 watts
Starting new COD5 game (japanese torture scene): 130 watts
Turned off console, standby light is pulsing: 80 watts
Wait a minute or two, standby light off: 2 watts

Xbox has a USB WIFI dongle and USB camera.

So it seems to just use 2 watts when in standby mode (basically just waiting for a radio signal to turn on from the controller).

That doesn't seem bad.
posted by schwa at 10:22 AM on December 7, 2008 [4 favorites]

This is perhaps the segment you saw?
posted by Ms. Next at 10:25 AM on December 7, 2008

2 watts for standby mode seems to concur with helios' posting too.

It might use as much as 80 watts while sleeping, to download game demos and so on in the background. But if you truly care about those watts you can turn that feature off. I have it turned on and rarely notice that pulsing power button - my assumption is that the downloads are pretty quick and only really occur while you turn off the xbox while it was in the middle of a download.
posted by schwa at 10:27 AM on December 7, 2008

Now if I could only work out why my Mac Pro is just plain refusing to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity.
posted by schwa at 10:32 AM on December 7, 2008

Still even if the Xbox doesn't use much power when off all the stuff adds up. I have 2 game consoles, TV, Dolby headphones, headphone microphone, home theater system, and an HDMI switcher. All of them draw power when they're "off." Hmmm, ok maybe not the headphones. It's easy enough to plug everything into a power strip and turn everything on and off at once.

I'd plug the cable box in too, but it looses all it's programing information when it looses power. Haven't they heard of rechargeable batteries?
posted by sevenless at 10:46 AM on December 7, 2008

I saw that segment as well; my recollection is they were talking about kids leaving the game player on pause while they went to school- that even though they weren't playing it, it was still using the same amount of juice. My kids do this all the time (drives me nuts!) because they are halfway through a level and can't save the game.
posted by jenkinsEar at 10:49 AM on December 7, 2008

As soon as I can find our family's Kill-O-Watt, I can test our Wii.
posted by Lucinda at 10:52 AM on December 7, 2008

I think you have it backwards. The Wii has something called Connect24 which keeps it connected to the internet for updates and who knows what else. If this mode is enabled (believe it is the default) then your Wii is eating 10watts when "off."
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:57 AM on December 7, 2008

Right now my XBox360 is using 11W powered down with no ethernet connection.

(For those interested I turned it on: 205W at the console, 235W during Halo 3 single-player.)
posted by alby at 12:54 PM on December 7, 2008

It may also be something of a semantic trick. If you figure your console uses 110 watts while running at 2 watts while standing by, and it's standing by a lot more than it's running, the SUM TOTAL of watts used might be the same between the two, but the RATE at which they use them is radically different.
posted by Doctor Suarez at 12:56 PM on December 7, 2008

@alby, that's quite a difference from my measurements.
posted by schwa at 1:05 PM on December 7, 2008

I'm with Doctor Suarez on this, I always thought that when claims are made like "Uses more power even when it's off!" that they're talking about it as an aspect of time. You play video games two hours a day, but it's plugged in 24 hours a day, so if it draws ten watts when off then at the end of a 24 hour period it's drawn more watts while off then while being used. It's not much per hour, but there's still coal being burnt to power something that isn't doing anything useful. I buy lots of cheap power strips and turn things off and on using the switches on them. Works out pretty well. DVR is always plugged in and running in some fashion, but the TV, DVD, and surround sound are all really off and not using any power when they're off.
posted by JackarypQQ at 3:22 PM on December 7, 2008

@schwa, that's what I thought. That's why I posted. I'm wondering if it has something to do with first-generation vs second-generation vs whatever ...
posted by alby at 3:46 PM on December 7, 2008

Seconding I Foody. In winter, appliances on standby become small space heaters, no more or less efficient than those.
posted by hAndrew at 4:32 PM on December 7, 2008

alby:

Newer Xbox 360s are more energy efficient. I believe the ones that just hit shelves are the 4th revision(but it may just be the 3rd).
posted by owtytrof at 8:41 AM on December 8, 2008