Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

liptonlover

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 13, 2008
989
0
earthle is a simple thing, all it does is make the google background black and the words darker grey but still readable. It is powered by google, it's exactly the same except for the colors. The goal is to cut down on energy usage, because as I'm sure you all know a black LED is actual a turned off LED, not using any power. If most google users switch to earthle, "an estimated 750 megawatt hours a year" will be saved. This helps the earth, as it cuts down on usage, blah blah blah. I encourage everyone to share this with others and to use it yourselves.
 
Basically an urban legend. It used to be true for CRT monitors, not for LCD monitors. The claim of 750 MWH is pure fiction.

Turning down your backlighting, or turning off the monitor by the power switch rather than letting it sleep, would save far, far more.

There's even likely to be a rebound effect, with more people leaving their monitors on because "It's saving power with blackle (or earthle), so I won't bother turning it off."

Test Results

Showing that on LCD monitors under 22", power consumption actually went up with a black Google screen.

Things you can REALLY do to reduce power consumption
 
Yup, and 2/3rds of the power consumed by a screen is the backlight, which is why turning off the screen rather than leaving a 'screensaver' to run is essential to save power. Or turning down the backlight intensity while working. I have mine turned down as low as it will go, and I just turn down the overhead lighting in the room. Double save.

There is a possibility that new LCD panels with LED backlighting could save energy if areas of LED backlights can be dimmed or turned off selectively behind black areas of the screen (this is being done with some high end monitors/tv's)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.