If you make your desktop backgroundblack, will it save energy?

It might, but not a significant amount to where it would make me switch mine.
It would just be easier to put it in sleep mode.

I don’t know, but white text on black backgrounds is sure easier on the eyes. I wish more websites ahem would catch on.

i remember an article once regarding this, i think they said that in normal CRT monitors, you can save power by using black desktop backgrounds… while on LCD monitors, it’s better to use white ones (?)

disclaimer: these are bits and pieces of what i can remember. to be sure, just google it. i am too lazy to do that right now ;)

Poser: If you have a mac (and maybe you can do this on pc too, dont know) you can set it up so that it’s white on black. System Prefs > Universal Access > Seeing Tab > White on Black. It’s pretty cool, but I eventually change it back after a while. And unfortunately it changes the color of everything – pictures included.

@Allie—yeah, I don’t think I’d like that too much. I like pictures too much. My only problem is large white pages with lots of dark text. I think we’re still stuck on the idea of paper. Background should be white, text dark. The problem is that staring at a white screen is like staring into a light bulb.

Poser: I know what you mean. I’d much rather look at a dark page with white text. I really wish there was a way to do this. There was (maybe still is) a dark google.

@Poser: You should read this.

If you have a CRT monitor having a black wallpaper will have an effect, but LCD screens use a larger amount of energy to show darker colors so it wouldn’t have any effect, or may actually use more energy.

This reminds me of Blackle.

@ bluemukaki ~ is Blackle powered by Google? That’s a pretty cool screen

I think Blackle just uses a Google Search box (which I believe earns Blackle advertising revenue because it’s part of Adsense), but Google did make their homepage black for Earth Hour.

I always miss the Google Doodles and homepage things like this because I use iGoogle, its strange they don’t do it for iGoogle too…

Not much. I’ll still have to power the rediculous graphics card. On the brightside the PC pumps out so much heat I don’t need to turn the heating on.

@blue—You’re right. I guess the rest of the internet will have to catch up with me!

@lightlyseared, same with my computer…, seriously heats my room. on a hot day in the summer, my AC wasn’t working and I was playing a game…. the graphics card got up to 105 degrees Celsius… I freaked out and immediately shut it down and bought a new heat sink, lol.

Anyway, to answer the question, only if you have a CRT monitor. I did some research on this a while back.

Seriously, how often is your wallpaper displayed on-screen? If I’d make mine black it’d save very little because I spend next to no time on looking at it.

It would save much more if people started turning off their computers instead of leaving it on all night.

Shutting off your pc overnight is the best bet. According to a study I read somewhere, shutting off your computer at night saves about $5.00 a month in energy costs.

I just wonder how many people actually cutoff their computer overnight?