An interesting story did the rounds in the office a little while when a website suggested that if the background to the Google homepage was black it would reduce the amount of electricity used by monitors across the world.

Google has done some thinking and replied, saying that it wouldn't actually make any difference. Or, it may even increase the power consumption. Detailed results from the study are available if you want figures.

It makes sense for flat panel displays as the light behind the screen is always on, so the colour of the picture doesn't make much difference. Older CRT monitors might see some savings but the real savings come from tweaking the power saving options in Windows to put the computer into a low power mode sooner.

I've found the Local Cooling utility helpful for this. It has the added motivator of telling you how much energy you have saved since installing it. So far, I've saved 3.324 trees, 30.10 Gallons of oil or 62.KWh of power. It's surprising how quickly the savings mount up.