LCD much more efficient than CRT

[bzipitidoo]

These measurements are according to a handy plug in power meter I bought around 5 years ago. When on, LCDs use around 30 watts. CRTs are much more variable, ranging from 50 watts to 120 watts and averaging somewhere around 80 watts. You'll see as much as 50 watts more energy for a CRT to display an all white image versus all black. Bumping up the resolution (like, from 1024x768 to 1200x1024) takes another 3 to 10 watts for each step up, and finally maximum contrast and brightness settings can up the power usage 10% over having contrast and brightness set to the halfway point. I saw similar power usage in a typical CRT based 19" TV. All that barely matters with an LCD.

Interesting that WYSIWIG had this hidden cost. I never cared for the black text on the white background, and always tried to have it the other way around. With the white background, felt like the monitor was trying to irradiate me.