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Blackle.com - Like Google, only black

Q

Queso

Suspended
Original poster
Mar 4, 2006
11,821
8
I quite like this idea. The theory is that by replacing the white background of your search engine page (i.e. Google) with a black alternative you ever so slightly lower your monitor's power consumption. Which means a tiny little carbon saving per person that adds up to something bigger.

It's the Google engine powering it, only it's in black :)

Set Blackle.com as your home page!
 
Annnddd... it is pretty much irrelevant for LCD monitors. The current required to twist a LCD crystal to make a pixel opaque or transparent is truly miniscule. The backlight (and the thermal loss of the power supply) consume several orders of magnitude more power. Those aren't affected by the colour of what's on the screen.

From the study cited on the blackle.com site:

"Among the few LCD monitors in the table, the power used to display a white screen is indistinguishable from power used to display the desktop. Thus, it appears that display color is a significant determinant of on power for CRTs, but not for LCDs"

So if you have a CRT monitor, maybe the black BG makes a small difference (the worst case scenario was 74W vs 104W on a 17" CRT

A FAR larger difference would be made by turning down the brightness of the CRT or the LCD backlighting a bit. And of course, by allowing the monitor (and computer) to sleep in a shorter time period, and turning the machine right off at night.
 
YAGTDWAWAIIBSIRPATHTEAITG.





For those not up with your acronyms: Yet Another Gimmick That Doesn't Work As Well As It Implies, But Still Indirectly Redirects People's Attention To Helping The Environment, And Is Therefore Good.
 
mad jew said:
YAGTDWAWAIIBSIRPATHTEAITG.





For those not up with your acronyms: Yet Another Gimmick That Doesn't Work As Well As It Implies, But Still Indirectly Redirects People's Attention To Helping The Environment, And Is Therefore Good.
Click to expand...

I think it's more a case of YASATMPFGBADTFRAFC

Yet another spurious action that makes people feel good but actually distracts them from real action for change.
 
if only people would actually do something more to help the environment rather than this non-issue bs.
 
secret that the work for me I would actually have to use Google home page do my searches right now I just used up Google search in Firefox so it wouldn't change anything for me at all.
 
CanadaRAM said:
I think it's more a case of YASATMPFGBADTFRAFC

Yet another spurious action that makes people feel good but actually distracts them from real action for change.
Click to expand...

Or both, depending on who you talk to, which leads me to my next thread.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
secret that the work for me I would actually have to use Google home page do my searches right now I just used up Google search in Firefox so it wouldn't change anything for me at all.
Click to expand...

Yeah...if my start page wasn't the default Firefox page (which is only still there because i'm lazy), I'd never visit Google.com (one without results, I mean).
 
I use the white versions but I turn my screen brightness allll the way up.

I also have about 400 of those "environmentally friendly" canvas bags they try to get you to re-use when you go shopping. Every time I go I get new bags.

Oh and my car runs on pure crude oil that I ignite using a flame in a less-than-perfectly ventilated engine so that there are lots of carbon compounds coming from the exhaust.

And I just farted...
 
geeze! this old myth again? LCD monitors get zero, that is ABSOLUTELY ZERO, energy saving by displaying black pixels instead of white. And as for the amount of energy save on CRTs, of which there are few these days, the energy saved is so small that the amount of energy required to run the black website instead of the white website probably uses up more energy than gets saved.

It's an interesting idea, but mathematically it makes no sense. You may actually wind up wasting more energy than you save using this site. Sorry to burst your bubble, but lets try and focus our efforts on tactics that might actually have even a slight impact on our energy consumption.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Annnddd... it is pretty much irrelevant for LCD monitors.

A FAR larger difference would be made by turning down the brightness of the CRT or the LCD backlighting a bit. And of course, by allowing the monitor (and computer) to sleep in a shorter time period, and turning the machine right off at night.
Click to expand...

What he said. LCDs use so stinkin' little compared to the tube jobs I wouldn't worry about it - but turning down brightness I can understand.

It is a noble concept though.
 
Queso said:
The theory is that by replacing the white background of your search engine page (i.e. Google) with a black alternative you ever so slightly lower your monitor's power consumption.
Click to expand...

In my case at least, the theory - is wrong - reading their own justification in the form of a PDF....

15" LCD screen - white 16W, black 16W

And they don't even look at LED backlit screens. It's a 6 year old PDF. Six years ago I didn't even own a Laptop. It's very very out of date and it's claims of Whr's saved are utterly utterly false.
 
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