Screen Colour

I have been aware for some time that different screen colours use more or less power than others. This is the reason behind Blackle.com, an internet search engine that is black instead of the more conventional white.

They explain the theory behind this as: "Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black: 'Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.'" Roberson et al, 2002

Initially I had decided that this was a good reason to have the blog in a cool black and green look. After designing this I was rather pleased with the outcome, until I did a bit more researching and dug a bit deeper. Should have completed my research before delving into the code, but I do like my programming...

As it emerges, CRT monitors (the old, big ones with Cathode Ray Tubes in them) use more energy to display black than they do to display white. Using a site like Blackle is great when you want to save energy.

However, LCD monitors (the new flat screen ones) use more energy to display white than they do black. As such, I feel that more people reading this site will be using LCD monitors than CRT , due to the nature of people in the west having more LCD’s and my knowing more westerners.

Scientific American's site concluded: "In the meantime, the world is evenly split between CRT and LCD monitors, totaling roughly 405 million and 401 million respectively in 2007, according to iSuppli data. So if you're still toiling away in front of a hefty CRT monitor that takes up three-quarters of your desk, then black screens will save you some energy. For those who've graduated to thinner LCD models, black screens are actually sucking up more energy then their white counterparts."

They have more info on this subject than I have included here, but I thought it was worth noting in case you are wondering about which search engine to use (Blackle is still powered by Google.com by the way), what colour to make your site, etc.