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Reject console rest mode and pc idling to burn less coal

Nah, I run a home NAS, media server, torrent box, DVR server for my security cameras, and keep my PC in sleep mode and all my consoles (all of them) in low energy instant-on mode. All my bulbs are wifi connected and have constant low power draw, and I have a automatic air purifier that is always monitoring air quality and activating/deactivating accordingly, even when I'm away. And 3 echo dots throughout my apartment, also always passively listening.

If you think changing this is what'll stop polar ice caps from melting you're deeply misguided. We're constantly making huge strides towards greater energy efficiency with home electronics, even as we start using more of them. The answer is moving to cleaner renewable energy sources and away from fossil fuels, and it's happening at steady pace, even if not as fast as we'd all like.

Sustainability practices have to be compatible with advancing human lifestyle commodities, or it'll never work. You're gonna gonna strong-arm the developed world into giving up the conveniences they've become accustomed to. But you can make those things more efficient.

All your post does is come across as patronizing and antagonistic, and it ain't gonna change anything really.
 
I have a friend who never switch off his console/pc. Even when he's out working. It's making me so mad for some reasons haha

As for me, I tend to always switch off my console but not the PC (since it's so old that it needs a 15min startup to be fully operational...)
 
ScatheZombie said:
Right, but that's the main source of 'carbon emissions' from power generation, by an overwhelmingly substantial margin. Even if everyone did this, it wouldn't touch emissions. It would affect the footprint of other, cleaner power sources.

Because, let's just use the numbers in your OP - if 350 million people (approx. pop of US) used 15 less watthours of energy (high end of console idle) - that's 131,400 watts per year, per person. Or... 45.9 trillion watts. That's a lot right?

We generate 4 trillion kilowatthours. So, literally every person in the US doing this every hour of every day for a whole year is... 1.1% of our power generation. That kind of puts into perspective 'every little bit counts' when you realize how little the 'bit' is.

You need to crack 46% (renewables and gas - which are the first to be throttled or turn off) to affect coal production.

Only 44.9% to go!
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One little thing eliminates an entire 100th of our energy consumption? No sarcasm, that's great.

Now do ten more little things. Couple of big things. It all adds up. Everyone is responsible.
 
ZOONAMI said:
Edit: those off the grid with their own solar and geothermal can obviously largely ignore this thread. Or those of you in countries with majority nuclear and renewable grids.
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WHAT? Wasting power in a country that produces most its energy from nuclear sources, creating a grand problem for countless future generations with deadly waste that keeps on being dangerous until even our grand-grand-grandchildren are dead, is an even bigger problem than burning through the coal.
 
I leave my Mac on all day, every day for the last 7 years. I've done the same with my Mac at work for the past 3. No regrets. Don't assume everyone lives near a coal plant, Niagara Falls produces a shit-ton of clean energy.
 
Thanks for making this thread, video game manufacturers are fucking wasteful with energy consumption, from Sony's rest mode to Nintendo's Pass thingy, to Microsoft hiding away lower energy consumption options far away in their menus
 
Doctoglethorpe said:
One little thing eliminates an entire 100th of our energy consumption? No sarcasm, that's great.

Now do ten more little things. Couple of big things. It all adds up. Everyone is responsible.
Click to expand...

That's... not really what I said. Not all 350m people in the US have rest-mode consoles. They aren't all in rest-mode every hour of every day. In the absolute craziest of circumstances where every person does this all the time it still doesn't affect the things the OP is pointing to that we need to resolve.

The reality is that even if most people who have these consoles do this, it's much closer to 0.01% than 1%.

Sorry for getting your hopes up.
 
I would say that since getting an SSD there isn't any point in using sleep, since there seems to be little difference in using sleep and just plain booting it up after being powered down. However, before I got the SSD I didn't use it then either. The last time I used it was around 1999-2001/2 when my old Compaq Presario could go into some fast sleep mode and be perfectly quiet due to not needing a fan to cool the K6-II processor. Since then, I've been shutting my pc down whenever I'm not using it.

The SSD has only made that easier.
 
Yoshi said:
WHAT? Wasting power in a country that produces most its energy from nuclear sources, creating a grand problem for countless future generations with deadly waste that keeps on being dangerous until even our grand-grand-grandchildren are dead, is an even bigger problem than burning through the coal.
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If only there was a way of converting 97% of nuclear waste back into fuel. We could call it "reprocessing" or something.

And I don't know why you think nuclear waste is worse than coal, given coal plants are melting the ice caps and all. And that nuclear waste is shielded whereas coal plants emit radiation (amongst other things) directly into the atmosphere.
 
No sense in having your pc's/console's fans suck in dust, wear out their lifespan and waste electricity when they aren't being used.
 
Camel-Toad said:
No sense in having your pc's/console's fans suck in dust, wear out their lifespan and waste electricity when they aren't being used.
Click to expand...

Except none of these things happen in standby mode, except very very low power consumption. Fans are off, no more dust being sucked in than would be if it as entirely off, and their low power state does not reduce their lifespan in any way that would be noticeable within the scale of how long we typically own consoles.

Nothing against people who turn theirs completely off, just don't think it's good to spread misinformation.
 
finalflame said:
Except none of these things happen in standby mode, except very very low power consumption. Fans are off, no more dust being sucked in than would be if it as entirely off, and their low power state does not reduce their lifespan in any way that would be noticeable within the scale of how long we typically own consoles.

Nothing against people who turn theirs completely off, just don't think it's good to spread misinformation.
Click to expand...

The poster is probably talking about idling
 
All matter is going to degrade at some point. All matter. Long after the sun consumes the earth, sure, but this is the fate of our universe. A cold, lifeless, particle soup floating in the vast nothingness. There is no "future" for our species.

I cannot be saved, you cannot be saved, our earth cannot be saved, the universe cannot be saved. Your fight is literally pointless. There is no endgame in which you win. Death comes for us all and there is nothing after it.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
 
Most of the PS4's rest mode energy draw comes from the active USB ports though. Useless to me with two controllers so I have that off anyway. The rest is almost not noticeable on my electric bill so it can't be much of a energy waste in context.


Also, I don't own a car and instead use almost only non-bus public transport or just walk.
So my footprint is already below average :p
 
Iorv3th said:
I wonder OP, do you turn your ac/heater off when you are not home or at least turn it to an energy saving mode?
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Who doesn't turn off their AC/Heating? Unless you live in the Artic or Sahara I could see why you'd leave it on, but surely everyone should be turning it off if they leave their house. Not only is it a waste of electricity but the money saving would be significant for an Air Con or heater, especially if the house is not well sealed/insulated.

The PS4 takes all of 30 seconds to power up. The PC takes way less. It doesn't make sense to keep it on.
 
Spman2099 said:
All matter is going to degrade at some point. All matter. Long after the sun consumes the earth, sure, but this is the fate of our universe. A cold, lifeless, particle soup floating in the vast nothingness. There is no "future" for our species.

I cannot be saved, you cannot be saved, our earth cannot be saved, the universe cannot be saved. Your fight is literally pointless. There is no endgame in which you win. Death comes for us all and there is nothing after it.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
Click to expand...

It's for future generations / our children. Even if you don't have children, think of other GAFFERS children.
 
Kind of related, but if you guys really care about being environment friendly, you should go digital. Physical games use up a lot of plastic and paper.
 
I never put my PC or my consoles on standby. Having to wait a few extra seconds is not a problem for me and besides I can cover my consoles with some fabric so that they won't collect dust so fast (I live near a busy street so dust is a big issue).
 
arbok26 said:
Who doesn't turn off their AC/Heating? Unless you live in the Artic or Sahara I could see why you'd leave it on, but surely everyone should be turning it off if they leave their house. Not only is it a waste of electricity but the money saving would be significant for an Air Con or heater, especially if the house is not well sealed/insulated.

The PS4 takes all of 30 seconds to power up. The PC takes way less. It doesn't make sense to keep it on.
Click to expand...


Nope. We had a thread right here on NeoGAF where people were bragging about how they left their AC on when they left the house for the day. Didn't go well when I called them out on it. But hey, people sure get their convenience!
 
I turn off everything when I'm not using it but I only put my laptop (Mac) to sleep.

TheGoddamn said:
Nope. We had a thread right here on NeoGAF where people were bragging about how they left their AC on when they left the house for the day. Didn't go well when I called them out on it. But hey, people sure get their convenience!
Click to expand...
?

HVAC repair and installation companies recommend leaving your AC running all day. They recommend setting it a few degrees higher than you'd use it when gone (so as to use considerably less power), then setting it back to your comfortable temperature when you return. It uses FAR more power to force an AC unit to have to re-cool your entire home.
 
At the weekends I turn Xbox, Av receiver TV and pc on and leave them on all day regardless if I'm using them or not.
Don't know why, It's like some weird habit thing.
 
If you're looking to make a positive impact on the environment, I'm not sure campaigning against video game console rest mode is the way to go about it.

Some of us don't have infinite free time so we don't won't to spend the little that we do downloading and installing games/patches.

Rest mode is a godsend.
 
Dreams-Visions said:
?

HVAC repair and installation companies recommend leaving your AC running all day. They recommend setting it a few degrees higher than you'd use it when gone (so as to use considerably less power), then setting it back to your comfortable temperature when you return. It uses FAR more power to force an AC unit to have to re-cool your entire home.
Click to expand...

You mean power usage isn't measured in units of Minutes Things Were Turned On?

I, for one, am shocked.
 
I'm one of the highest electricity consumers on my street, according to my power company. However, my power usage is a fraction of what the pizza Shop across the road uses, let alone the shopping centres and factories Close by.

Modern consumer electronics have long been Energy efficient on standby (though you may want to replace your old microwave!)

The problem has always been Commercial and industrial applications.


EDIT: please note that there are 4 people in this house, all technologically inclined. Also be aware that every light in the house is an LED globe, most of the household's devices are efficient enough to get a minimum 3 Star rating on the Australian scale, AND we have solar panels reducing our baseload. We just live in a street full of single retirees, lol
 
OP, your heart is in the right place. I do use rest mode, but I offset my carbon footprint GREATLY by walking everywhere, and taking a train everywhere. I also only ever have my PS4 on rest mode. Everything else is turned off until it needs to be used (including my PC).
 
texhnolyze said:
It blows my mind when I learned for the first time that there are people out there who actually don't turn off their electronic devices.
Click to expand...


This.

I don't know about others, but between a job, chores, gf, friends and the like I get to turn on my gaming pc/consoles once or twice a day. Makes it literally pointless to leave the systems in standby 24/7 only to speed things up that one time I want to play.

Not to mention a few games on PS4 don't cope well with resuming play from rest mode.

Z.. said:
I'm gonna go ahead and tell you what they won't... it's not about convenience, it's about selfishness. We were brought up to be ridiculously self centered.

I'm one of the selfish assholes. And yes, you are right and I commend your effort.
No sarcasm, just seems silly to not own up to the fact that this is about anything but selfishness when that's all it boils down to.

My stance is more along Carlin's though... the planet is fine and there's not much we can do to ever change that, it's the human race and other living creatures who are completely fucked. And I'm absolutely OK with that because we absolutely deserve it. The planet will heal after we're gone.
Click to expand...

Basing one's view of an important matter on a ten (maybe more) year old stand up sketch.. not even once, man.

Carlin is funny and I loved his work, but you shouldn't take his jokes as gospel. The planet is not fine.
Moreover, all the fuss is not just about "saving the planet", it's also about the people. You know, building a world worth living in for our sons, daughters, nephews.
 
Blows my mind that there are people that feel their action ms don't have an effect. This planet is long past fucked thanks to people doing whatever the hell they want for decades.

GoldenDarkness said:
Nope, leaving my pc and ps4 on won't have a REAL affect on anything besides a dollar on my electric bill.
Click to expand...
Exhibit A
 
Dreams-Visions said:
HVAC repair and installation companies recommend leaving your AC running all day. They recommend setting it a few degrees higher than you'd use it when gone (so as to use considerably less power), then setting it back to your comfortable temperature when you return. It uses FAR more power to force an AC unit to have to re-cool your entire home.
Click to expand...

Yep. This is something that most people don't realize and berate others for actually knowing. If you have central heating and cooling, it is much, much more energy efficient to leave your system on maintaining a constant temperature (especially if you have a well-insulated home) than it is to allow your entire house to warm or cool by several degrees and force the heating or cooling unit to compensate for the hours you've left it completely off.

xJavonta said:
Blows my mind that there are people that feel their action ms don't have an effect.
Click to expand...

To be fair, in this particular example, they aren't entirely wrong.
 
I leave my gaming and media PCs in Sleep constantly.

I leave my PS4 in Rest Mode with USB ports powered continuously.

I let my PS3 automatically turn on every night to check for updates.

I set my refrigerator to 1 notch below the default to keep food colder.

I have a standalone chest freezer in addition to my refrigerator.

I drive a Ford Explorer which gets 18 miles a gallon.

COME AT ME BROS
 
Unknown Soldier said:
I leave my gaming and media PCs in Sleep constantly.

I leave my PS4 in Rest Mode with USB ports powered continuously.

I let my PS3 automatically turn on every night to check for updates.

I set my refrigerator to 1 notch below the default to keep food colder.

I have a standalone chest freezer in addition to my refrigerator.

I drive a Ford Explorer which gets 18 miles a gallon.

COME AT ME BROS
Click to expand...

Lol, I thought you were going to start singing that "I'm an asshole" song made popular by Denis Leary.
 
Yeah, I do that except for the very rare occassion I download something big.

Yeah, honestly we need energy regulation. Wasteful consumption probably accounts for at least a quarter or more consumer consumption in richer countries. Utterly messed up and means we are implicated in this thing.

Rather sad that people find the message patronising when there is strong emipirical evidence to back up the aggregate effects of this kind of wastefulness. In general with people though it is easier to have hard prohibitions (i.e., you can do something because it is not possible), than self-regulation.

thetrin: that is not offsetting, that is reducing.
 
Just two days ago I bought Inside while at work via the PlayStation app and thanks to the rest mode it was already installed and ready to go when I came home.

My PS4 stays in rest mode 24/7.
 
I had no tv [or media intake] for over 15 years. Now my ps4 is in standby, til I eventually shed gaming again. It's not about whether your PS4 is in standby, it's whether you own electronics at all [and everything they represent to get to your door, from mining through transport through manufacturing, etc].

Basically, OP, my point is -- if you actually care, then shut it down and walk away from the hobby [and TV, national brands of anything, etc]. Don't preach, just live and lead by example. Nobody is suddenly going to care that you're half assing caring about emissions, and asking them to put a ps4 in standby isn't going to change anything except give you a false feeling of accomplishment.
 
Most of my country's power supply is renewable, and pretty much 100% at night. In addition, additional buildup of the renewable capacity is financed pretty much entirely by the power bill, meaning that the more power I use, the faster it turns green.

Also, it's just 10W FFS. There's way more savings to be gained by changing all your bulbs to LEDs, or insulating your house better.
The Dear Leader said:
Yeah same, I've done that my whole life, even with a HDD in my PC. It's just extra wear and tear on hardware for no real benefit.
Click to expand...
That's... Not how electronics work.
 
xJavonta said:
Blows my mind that there are people that feel their action ms don't have an effect. This planet is long past fucked thanks to people doing whatever the hell they want for decades.


Exhibit A
Click to expand...

Energy companies aren't going to change their forecasting because of a couple thousand people deciding to completely turn off their consoles instead of throwing it in rest mode.

Residential demand is maybe 25% of end energy consumption in 1st world countries, with the majority of that being HVAC. If you want to make something of a change, start by telling people to get better insulation, not setting their AC to absurd temps, getting rid of that second chest freezer etc. Consoles and PC's are a drop in the ocean as far as consumption goes.

Chase up industry if you want to make real change, something like 30% of total energy generation in most countries is lost/wasted in the generation/transmission process.
 
On PC: Sleep when mid-game and can't save, shutdown otherwise.
On console: Sleep when mid-game and can't save or downloading stuff, shutdown otherwise.

Especially on my PC, sleep when there isn't something I need to keep on just makes absolutely no sense. I recently got an SSD and that shit boots up instantly.

That said, global warming will not be solved by lifestyle changes by the average joe. It'll be solved by technological improvements. You can't trust people not to take the easy way out.
 
Audette said:
Lol, I thought you were going to start singing that "I'm an asshole" song made popular by Denis Leary.
Click to expand...

Nah, my monthly electric bill is like $40. You see, the reality is that these small things actually don't use that much power. I do all the things I said and I still probably pay less a month in power bills than most people here. Because stuff like that doesn't matter. Just turn off the lights on a room when you leave and you save more power than turning a PS4 off instead of leaving it in Rest Mode.

Oh, my car is a 1997. I keep driving it because it still works fine after almost 20 years. If you want me to stop driving my car you're welcome to buy me a new one.
 
I always turn everything off when possible apart from leaving my NAS on. I only tend to do that as I know it will be coming out of my pocket and the suspend mode tends to not save much time to be justified for me but I only turn on my consoles once a month if that.

My PC is on daily but shutdown when not in use and maybe left on if I'm only going to be away for 30 minutes-hour anything longer than that I tend to shutdown. But I'm one of the people who tends to turn off any appliance where possible! I tend to kill power to my AV setup if I know it isn't going to be used for a day+

None of this is for the benefit of the planet but my wallet :p For the tiny amount of energy this saves is counteracted by a few people accidentally leaving their heating on, or making some unnecessary car journeys.
 
Not that I leave it on rest for extended periods of time, since there are power outages where I live, but

Consoles on sleep mode consume a very small amount of energy and even then the small amount saved is easily spent if you ever boot up the console to play something, there are much much better ways to fight climate change if that is your objective.

Like, for instance, not depend on coal energy for your personal daily life and install some panels
 
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