Blackle claims that Google is the white devil. The custom Google search engine (not affiliated with Google) now provides users with the option to use an all - black Google screen that they say lowers your monitor’s energy consumption.

The idea sprouted from flawed assumptions originally posted on the Ecoiron blog. Ecoiron claims monitors displaying an all - black web page will save 15 watts over displaying an all - white web page. Since Google’s all - white screen gets about 200 million queries a day, that’s a whole lot of wattage.

Never Mind the Bollocks

It’s true that CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors will use more energy displaying an all - white page, but independent testing shows they don’t use a whole 15-watts. Furthermore, LCD monitors in many cases will actually use less energy displaying an all - white page than an all - black one.

The folks at Techlogg.com rolled up their collective sleeves and did some real - world lab tests of various monitors. Their aim was to measure power consumption differences between black and white screens.

Sure enough, white screens suck more juice than black when using a CRT monitor. But there’s definitely not a 15-watt difference. The average power consumption increase for all the CRT monitors tested turns out to be 10.8-watts.

Only one older 22-inch CRT monitor (Compaq P1210) benefited from Blackle.com by saving 16.4 watts. Newer CRT monitors are more efficient than the old ones were at displaying all – white backgrounds.

It’s a different story with LCD monitors; many LCD monitors actually increased power consumption displaying an all - black web page. Most LCD monitors that saved energy displaying an all - black page only saved about a fraction of a watt.

According to a September 2006 study, market penetration for LCD monitors increased 26.1 per cent year-over-year. Worldwide Dell was ranked number one in shipping LCD monitors. The study that conducted the test says that the total LCD monitor usage is now well beyond 75%.

We can’t blame anyone for trying. But too often people like to wear the environmentalist halo like a fashion statement. Don’t buy every energy savings gimmick you come across.

If you’re serious about saving energy consumed by your workstation, turn off your computer at night. And use a screen saver that simply turns off your monitor; any display screen saver just makes your monitor work harder.