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ENERGY STAR Gets Serious about Games

November 13, 2008 - Video games have provided tons of family fun over the last few years, even allowing some of us rock star wannabes to perform center stage (well, center living room stage). But these boxes of fun have also been shown to be large energy consumers, even in their idle mode. One study showed recently that when left idle, certain game boxes can use over 100 W waiting for someone to come back in the room and take the controls. And some games consume almost 10 W even when they enter into their standby mode.

In the latest draft of ENERGY STAR's computer specification, version 5.0, the EPA addresses the energy consumption of video game consoles (i.e. Wiis, Xboxes, PlayStations and others.)

To be ENERGY STAR qualified, the game consoles will soon have to use less than 1 W in "off" mode and less that 5 W in standby. In addition, devices must automatically power down after sitting idle for one hour. The specification also addresses DVD/Blu Ray/Movie playback features which must come within 10% of the respective current ENERGY STAR requirement.

The following chart lays out the details:

 Operational Mode Requirements*
Off Mode: ≤ 1 W Sleep or Auto-Off: ≤ 5 W
 Power Management and Efficient Operation Requirements
Sleep or Auto-Off
  • The console shall power down to a sleep mode after 1 hour of inactivity; and
  • Provide Game Developers the tools/features allowing APD within games or programs designed for the console; and
  • Automatically APD when games are in an inactive or paused game state; and
  • Provide for Full Network Connectivity in sleep.
TV/Display Sleep
  • The console shall have the ability to drop Component, Composite, DVI outputs (using in-place standards where applicable) when the system is inactive for 15 minutes. Ability to do this in HDMI should be implemented once a HDMI standard for doing so exists; and
  • Provide visual feedback on the console's integrated display or LEDs calling attention to the consoles continued active state while outputs are dropped.
Power Scaling
  • Set Top Box (STB) and DVD/Blu Ray/Movie Playback functions must come within 10% of the requirements in place for the Energy Star STB Specification Version 2.0, Tier 2 (finalized on April 23, 2008). Game consoles must be tested using the test procedure in the Set Top Box specification to evaluate their ability to meet the requirement.
Efficient Networking
  • Implement IEEE 802.3az and Full Network Connectivity in Sleep for Ethernet and Wi-Fi.
  • Wireless Access Point functions must use less than 10W.
*In the current 4.0 requirement, standby (off mode) is defined as ≤ 2.0 W and sleep mode as ≤ 4.0 W.

Game consoles with a date of manufacture on or after July 1, 2010 must meet the version 5.0 requirements in order to qualify for the ENERGY STAR logo.

NOTE: The development of game console requirements will continue through the close of the calendar year in order to allow time to further refine requirements and commence efforts to engage game publishers in the ENERGY STAR process.

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0 Replies  |  Created on Nov 13, 2008 09:31 AM by Power Integrations Engineer MrGreen
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