This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 21:02 and is filed under Internet, Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Every once in a while, you look at something and at first glance surrender it do absurdity. Then on closer inspection, you realize that in fact, a jewel indeed lay beneath the murky mud of silliness. Well, I have such as a one for you all and it has to do with our favorite search engine, Google.
Everyone knows that Google is a simple all white page. That white seems to be burning more fuel than black backgrounded screens. In other words, the white Google uses about 74 watts of energy on your display versus the 59 for the black version Google. Now, Mark Ontkush has gone and figured out that with all of us hitting the Google site as much as we do, that if we were to have a black version, we’d save — ready? — 3000 Megawatt-hours a year. Don’t mean much to you? Didn’t to me, either. In terms of greenbacks, we’re talking $75,000 in energy conservation. Wow!
No Fletch, this doesn’t mean I want all black web pages. 75k is small price to pay for a good looking web site. 
May 17th, 2007 at 0:10
are you just trying to bait me here? maybe it’s from my rebellious days of poetry and short stories, but black is very cool…some of my best websites are all black!
May 17th, 2007 at 6:48
Hi Sven – version of this story have been circulating of late and I need to add my $0.02 if I may.
The maths might be right for computers using tube technology but not so for (the majority?) of computers which are using LCD screens.
The reason?
A tube monitor has to fire more electrons at the screen to illuminate the white areas, thus using more energy per cycle. Tubes use light generation to form white areas on screen.
LCD is the exact opposite. The whole screen is illuminated by fluorescent or LED light. For white areas the light is allowed to escape from the screen unfettered. For black areas the light is blocked by polarising the light passing through the LCD layer.
The conclusion?
For LCD screens there is no energy saving in displaying black as opposed to white. In fact the opposite is true as LCD screens have to use more energy to block the white light. With the increasing market share that LCD screens are gaining (laptops and desktops) the maths becomes less and less compelling.
What do you think? Am I right?