Computer Monitor Energy Efficiency

Where do your monitors go when they die? “Ice Ardor” has been thinking about it for quite some time…

In today’s tech world, monitors are getting bigger and bigger. 12-inch monitors used to be normal sized, and then 15- and 17-inch. I myself have a 17-inch monitor at 1280×1024px (the maximum my graphics card will support), and sometimes I wish I had more screen real estate. But something that constantly makes me worry is how a larger monitor means not only will my electricity bill be higher, but I am negatively impacting the environment. Sometimes I don’t need anything bigger than 17 inches, and so powering up a 30 inch monitor, for example, would be wasteful of energy. And even though there have been some great advancements in monitor technology, particularly the switch to CRT to LCD (I’ve got a CRT), larger monitors still produce more heat. More heat means global warming and wasted energy that was derived from some form of energy, most likely nonrenewable.

Americans continue to embrace unnecessary inefficiencies. For example, Windows Vista Ultimate has an animated wallpaper option. That’s wasted CPU power. Another example, screen savers were invented a long time ago when they actually saved screens. Now that isn’t an issue with monitors, yet our screen savers are more graphically complex than they used to be. When we’re away from our computers, do we really need to have some fancy schmancy graphics animation using more CPU than when we are sitting down at our computer? Another example, the yule log video, while cool, probably isn’t as good as the real thing, and justs wastes energy. There’s better ways to get into the Christmas season (eggnog, anyone?). Furthermore, with increasingly large monitors, the power consumption of the monitor and CPU for unnecessary tasks is quite significant.

I was also noticing that monitors are one of the things that people update with a new computer purchase. A lot of people who buy a new computer buy a new monitor. This means there are an excess of old monitors in the world, and unfortunately, they are costly to recycle due to hazardous chemicals. In today’s technology age, I don’t think people are really seeing the damage done to this earth just to have “the latest and greatest”.

I definately don’t mean this to be a personal attack on anyone who chooses to have more screen real estate (hey, I’d take a 21-inch if someone offered it to me), but do you think that there is a balance between screen size and energy efficiency? If you could throw this out to the chatroom (maybe make a video of it, too), I’d love to hear what people have to say about monitor size (energy efficiency vs human productivity), energy-wasteful applications, and the technological habit for upgrading monitors.

So, what do you do with your old monitors?