Ask HN: To save energy, light mode + dim screen or dark mode + bright screen?

#1

Post by rr-geil-j » Tue, Oct 01, 2019, 2:12 PM UTC

I find myself increasing my screen brightness whenever I use dark themes/modes, and vice versa. Since I have no real preference between the two, I'm thinking of just choosing based on energy savings.

Which combination saves more energy in the long run?

Re: Ask HN: To save energy, light mode + dim screen or dark mode + bright screen?

#2

Post by ohiovr » Tue, Oct 01, 2019, 4:36 PM UTC

I was going to give an opinion but wouldn’t it be more fun to make an experiment?

Re: Ask HN: To save energy, light mode + dim screen or dark mode + bright screen?

#3

Post by rr-geil-j » Tue, Oct 01, 2019, 6:11 PM UTC

ohiovr wrote: post #2

I was going to give an opinion but wouldn’t it be more fun to make an experiment?

I was thinking of that though I still have to find out which method is accurate. I was hoping someone in HN already did something similar. :-)

Re: Ask HN: To save energy, light mode + dim screen or dark mode + bright screen?

#4

Post by avocadoLife » Wed, Oct 02, 2019, 2:24 PM UTC

AFAIK, dark mode can save energy on OLED based screens (due to pixels being completely turned off) but not on LCD-based screens. However, lowering brightness should probably always lower energy usage.