Energy-saving web search

Back(ground) in black 8

It's called Blackle -- a black version of Google -- and according to this blogpost, it could save 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year globally:

An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. I thought I would do a little math and see what could be saved by moving a high volume site to the black format.

Take at look at Google, who gets about 200 million queries a day. Let's assume each query is displayed for about 10 seconds; that means Google is running for about 550,000 hours every day on some desktop. Assuming that users run Google in full screen mode, the shift to a black background will save a total of 15 (74-59) watts. That turns into a global savings of 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year. Now take into account that about 25 percent of the monitors in the world are CRTs, and at 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, that's $75,000, a goodly amount of energy and dollars for changing a few color codes.

Heap Media, the Sydney-based creators of Blackle, say that even though the per-capita energy savings are small, "every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy."

Maywa Montenegro is an editor and writer at Seed magazine, focusing mainly on ecology, bidiversity, agriculture, and sustainable development.

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  1. scatter Posted 4:50 am
    30 Jul 2007

    Not for LCD screensI've had this one sent to me so many times over the last couple of weeks. Sadly it doesn't apply to LCD screens (which have a backlight which is always on) so the saving must be for CRTs

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  2. wayneluke Posted 5:06 am
    30 Jul 2007

    LCDs use less to start with.LCDs still provide a savings over CRT in general use as they use less electricity to begin with.
    http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=monitors.lcd

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  3. Skye Posted 5:41 am
    30 Jul 2007

    Doesn't look like this holds up.There are more LCD screens, and they actually use more power to make black.
    http://techlogg.com/content/view/317/1/

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  4. BiggusCattus Posted 5:42 am
    30 Jul 2007

    Wow! On Grist!How exciting!
    http://www.treehugger.com/authors/index.php?author=marko
    But it's only 750 mWh in the first article
    http://ecoiron.blogspot.com/2007/07/facts-and-fallacies-o ...
    and this takes into account the LCD screens.  
    mark

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  5. noolympics Posted 6:09 pm
    30 Jul 2007

    Adding a fan to a room with A/CHow many of you are doing this? Add a fan to a room with A/C. Turn on the fan; turn down the A/C level. As long as you keep the room temperature at around 25-26 C, the room will be really really cool!
    Also, start reducing the size of a window. Replacing thin glass windows with wooden walls will reduce heat and cold.
    Go to public libraries during summer time. Open your fridge less frequently. Grow more trees around your house. Replace your grass by home-grown vegetables. Replace your light bulbs by light tubes.
    About the PC thingie, how many of you have noticed that MS windows is the most energy inefficient OS in the world? It is booting with lots of unnecessary drivers and stuff. That keeps the harddisk running forever which consumes a lot of energy. Stop using any screen saver too cause it runs the harddisk at the background. Use blank instead! I believe buying more ram will help too cause if you don't have enough ram, the OS will start using the harddisk more often which is obviously more energy consuming!

    freehk.org | chinasick.blogspot.com | noolympics.blogspot.com

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  6. JMG's avatar

    JMG Posted 6:46 pm
    30 Jul 2007

    Maybe a little clearer benefitFrom the machines discussed here

    http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/7/16/124035/796

    Save the world: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.

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  7. Buckaroozen Posted 4:37 am
    01 Aug 2007

    Greygle.com - another Energy Saving Web SearchFor those  who find Blackle a little too difficult to read.  Perhaps trying Greygle might be a in between solution.  It has grey background to help reduce the energy cost but darker text to keep it more familiar to what most people normally see to read.

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  8. telemark Posted 2:35 pm
    01 Aug 2007

    rippleFor those with LCD screens...check out http://www.ripple.org.
    It's a different way of helping with your search. Each search generates money which goes to charities like Oxfam to fight poverty (whereas the blackle money goes to some guy in Sydney).

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