PC Mike -Tech News

There’s a controversial online movement to get Internet developers to design their Web sites with black backgrounds instead of white or light colors. The rationale is that a black background with white or contrasting text uses markedly less energy than conventional black text on white background designs.
That’s the subject of my NBC-TV report ths week.
Take Blackle… which offers sort of a reverse image of Google. It claims to save massive amounts of energy…and that the real Google… if it used a black background… would use 750 million fewer watt hours of energy a year.
Since Blackle went online a few months ago, a host of similar sites have cropped up, all claiming that the black backgrounds they use require less energy on the older CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors that are still in use.
But here’s the issue…Most newer monitors today are LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) flat screens and are much more energy efficient. And because they use a backlight that is always on, it makes little difference what color the screen is.
That’s what the real Google says, that this whole black is green movement is not very effective because only about 20-25 percent of the monitors in use today are of the old energy-hogging type.
But tell that to the Net’s greenies who claim that even if the energy savings are small, they all add up and every time we use less energy, the better it is.
One thing all the experts agree on is perhaps the best way to save tech energy is to turn off computers and monitors when not in use. And don’t forget to power down printers, too.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 7:58 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.