Google Says All Black LCD Screens May Use More Energy
In a block titled…
…Google Green Energy Czar (that’s really his title) Bill Weihl says that a study indicates that an all black LCD display may actually use more energy than an all white screen. This, of course, refutes the Blackle site claims that suggests an all black background Google display would reduce energy consumption.
My take on this is that the white letters on a black background screen is so hard to read (for me) that I would waste electricity just based on the amount of time it would take me to read the screen.
August 14th, 2007 at 11:03 am
The point is moot. An LCD’s power draw is the backlight so as long as it is on, the set will draw more than 170 watts. Now, the LCD display itself will draw very little power if the transistors are all open (white screen) or closed (black screen). The highest power draw is a 50% gray, shifting to black, going back to gray, ON A CHECKERBOARD pattern, CHANGING every frame. This is the maximum load for the column drivers.
It is true that the new displays are “normally black” so a black screen will draw fractionally less than a white screen.
But does anyone really care.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:36 am
To respond to David, the power will actually draw about 28.2 watts on Google.com vs. 29.5 watts on Blackle.com. This was the result of a test using FireFox and connecting a Watts Up? Electricity Meter on a 19″ Dell monitor. I’ve published and included a link to a video on my blog at http://danalytics.blogspot.com/2007/08/blacklecom-energy-saving.html
We do care, by the way, because this is an egregious appeal to our willingness to endorse the idea of being “green” to profit personally from that traffic.
Sincerely,
Daniel Shields