Energy Calculation: One LCD Consumes Roughly Same Energy As 240 E-Paper Displays

April 1, 2024 by Dave Haynes

The main selling proposition of e-paper technology companies is that their displays consume just a fraction of the energy needed to drive conventional LCD-based displays. That’s well established, but it is nonetheless interesting to see the difference calculated …

The Slovenian tech firm Visionect has years been focused on e-paper displays and supporting technologies, and is most notable for making monochrome screens look beautiful. But the company also makes the business, operating expense and sustainability with a brief it recently pushed out.

The conventional use of LCD and LED displays is being re-evaluated, Visionect argues, due to their significant energy consumption and operational challenges. For example, an active LCD refreshes about 50 times per second (4,320,000 times per day) regardless of whether the image is static or changing. An average display consumes about 2,592,000 mA, or 720 mAh of power every day.

By contrast, e-paper displays consume 3 mA on average over a whole day with few image updates per day.

So the power needed to drive 240 e-paper displays is roughly the same as what’s needed to drive one LCD panel.

There are, of course, all kinds of trade-offs, notably no video support, but the argument is pretty compelling for information that is straightforward and only needs to be updated periodically.