On: How Web Content Can Affect Power Usage

[bonyt]

There is a search engine (that gets results from Google) with a black background that claims to reduce energy usage on monitors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackle

[spartanatreyu → bonyt]

It actually uses more energy for most people's display devices to show black. It's because the screens are back-lit and it costs energy to block out the light rather than let it pass through.

Blackle was only really useful when CRT screens were around. It could be useful on OLEDs which are not back-lit but they have shorter life spans due to burn-in.

[bla3 → spartanatreyu]

It depends on the display technology. OLED screens need less power to show black than white. Backlight LCD screen need more power to show black.

[tobr → bonyt]

That doesn’t make sense at all for most types of screens. If anything, I wonder if a darker design might make visitors increase their screen brightness to compensate.

[amiga-workbench → tobr]

This site is really old, back when it was new, CRT's were still very common.

[The_rationalist → tobr]

Why wouldn't is apply to OLED? OLED pixels shut down for black so consume 0 watts theoretically.

And OLED is becoming the standard for smartphones which represents the majority of web traffic.