SCREEN SAVER

Worried by the inevitable global warming, people across the world are doing all they can to save power with energy efficient home appliances...

Worried by the inevitable global warming, people across the world are doing all they can to save power with energy efficient home appliances and lighting. Now, even the searches on the Internet are doing their bit to make a difference.

Blackle.com is an energy saving search engine that is not a Google initiative but uses the custom search powered by Google. As a monitor requires relatively more power to display a white screen compared to a dark one, the black background of Blackle explains its concept of saving energy. “Blackle screen is very distinctive and its dark colour acts as a good reminder each time you see it to make every effort to save energy,” says Toby Heap, founder of Heap Media, an Australian online services company that created and launched Blackle in February this year.

Consistent with this concept, another dark screen energy saving search engine, this one powered by Yahoo, is Earthoid.com. Working on the same principle that white and bright colours (especially in backgrounds) can use up to 20 per cent more power than black/dark colours, Earthoid got its idea from Blackle.

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“The direct energy savings on Blackle are on the home page. At 160,000 watt hours, this is equivalent to leaving a 60-watt light on for 2,667 hours,” adds Heap.

While studies confirm that the use of Blackle on CRT monitors saves energy, an average of 3.16 watts, as opposed to Blackle’s claim of 15 watts, Heap admits, “We have not made any claims about saving 15 watts. That was the estimate used for the calculations in the blog post that inspired Blackle.”

Though the sales of CRT monitors has dropped the world over, their numbers are still significant in developing nations like India and in South America. “The energy saving from using Blackle on CRT screens is much larger than LCDs. The energy saved figure on the home page is calculated based on the percentage of people using CRT screens and does not add any saving for people using LCD screens,” explains Heap.

Among the LCD screens, some of which are said to save energy using Blackle while others end up using a bit more, it is the compact fluorescent (CCFL) backlit LCD screens that are less affected by colour because of the constant light. “It depends on the resting state of the LCD as to whether they require energy to stop light or to allow it through. This is why some CCFL LCD screens save energy and some use a bit more,” says Heap, adding that “Blackle would work better in many new monitor technologies such as LED backlit LCD screens, plasma and OLED screens, which do not have constant backlight and hence would see larger savings with a dark screen home page such as the Blackle or Earthoid.”

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While others offer tips such as reducing the brightness of the screen or switching off the computer and not using a screensaver because it costs power to run, Heap says, “People are still going to conduct searches on their computers and if such search engines can help then why not?”

Blackle and Earthoid may not solve the world’s energy problems, but they are a step in the right direction.

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