Saving Energy: Auto-Off For Xbox 360
Could their be anything worse than a gnarly image burned into a fancy schmancy TV? What about outrageous electric bills? Well, for Xbox 360 gamers, this is a very real possibility. But, fear not, there is an easy solution to these problems. Auto-off.
Setting Auto-off is very easy. With your Xbox 360* on, from your Dashboard, go to your Settings. Choose that. Then, go to Console Settings. Now you are going to choose Startup and Shutdown. Choose the Auto-off feature. There are two options: One hour of inactivity or six hours of inactivity. Select the one that is best for you. Personally I have mine set to one hour of inactivity.
There is a drawback to turning this feature on. If for some reason during gameplay you go idle for the specified time period, the console does turn itself off! This means, if you haven't saved, you are just going to have to suck it up and redo all that you lost from the last save.
But, for most gamers, this is no big deal. Most of us save religiously. But it can be annoying playing certain games like any of the Call of Duty games. Those games have checkpoints, yes. But often the checkpoint doesn't stick when the game is turned off. You have to finish the chapter. So use this with caution.
Something else to consider is for those that stream movies/videos. For many, myself included, Netflix is a great way to unwind and fall asleep. But, so long as that content is streaming, my inactivity timer doesn't kick in.
So if you are concerned about burning images onto your TV, remember to also use the "Sleep Timer" so many TVs come with. Usually setting that to two hours really helps out!
Some simple math can help you figure out how much you can save in electricity with this handy energy use calculator here just by utilizing the Auto-off feature.
How much do you think you save by being a tad greener and using Auto-off? Let us know how green and frugal you are in the comments!
*These directions only apply to the most up-to-date dashboards as of November 26, 2012. Steps listed may be different if console is older and not updated.
Setting Auto-off is very easy. With your Xbox 360* on, from your Dashboard, go to your Settings. Choose that. Then, go to Console Settings. Now you are going to choose Startup and Shutdown. Choose the Auto-off feature. There are two options: One hour of inactivity or six hours of inactivity. Select the one that is best for you. Personally I have mine set to one hour of inactivity.
There is a drawback to turning this feature on. If for some reason during gameplay you go idle for the specified time period, the console does turn itself off! This means, if you haven't saved, you are just going to have to suck it up and redo all that you lost from the last save.
Something else to consider is for those that stream movies/videos. For many, myself included, Netflix is a great way to unwind and fall asleep. But, so long as that content is streaming, my inactivity timer doesn't kick in.
So if you are concerned about burning images onto your TV, remember to also use the "Sleep Timer" so many TVs come with. Usually setting that to two hours really helps out!
Some simple math can help you figure out how much you can save in electricity with this handy energy use calculator here just by utilizing the Auto-off feature.
How much do you think you save by being a tad greener and using Auto-off? Let us know how green and frugal you are in the comments!
*These directions only apply to the most up-to-date dashboards as of November 26, 2012. Steps listed may be different if console is older and not updated.
0 comments:
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Stay frugal!