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jettejette

Lights off or on?

Does it really save substantial amounts of electricity turning off lights when you leave a room when you have energy efficient light bulbs?
I follow my Dad's example and turn off everything when I leave a room. My husband on the other hand leaves everything on, saying that the savings are miniscule. Thoughts please!
Treacodactyl

1 x 10w bulb can be on for 100hrs for one unit. Even if it's something like 20p a unit that's 100hrs for 20p.

There are other variables, I'm sure energy saving bulbs actually use more energy than they state but it's still going to be quite cheap.

On the other hand, if everyone leaves on a couple of bulbs that's still a lot of electricity used.
Rob R

It depends how long you're leaving the room for - energy savers tend to take longer to get up to full brightness so you might end up spending more time waiting for the lights to warm up if you're in & out quite often.
mark

frequent turning on and off reduces the life span of a Compact Fluorescent bulb quite a lot. The lifespans quoted are based on normal use.
In toilets etc they last loads shorter and quickly lose their full illuminating power (go dim) !

This can be a concern if you are concerned about increased mercury use or the fact that the bulbs are mainly manufactured then transported from china.

If you ensure you leave 20 minutes between switching off and on or vice versa and limit yourself to 30 on off cycles a day their should be no concern.

With higher tech more expensive lamps you can switch more frequently

With LEDs you don't need to worry the same.
onemanband

frequent turning on and off reduces the life span of a Compact Fluorescent bulb quite a lot. The lifespans quoted are based on normal use.
In toilets etc they last loads shorter and quickly lose their full illuminating power (go dim) !

This can be a concern if you are concerned about increased mercury use or the fact that the bulbs are mainly manufactured then transported from china.

If you ensure you leave 20 minutes between switching off and on or vice versa and limit yourself to 30 on off cycles a day their should be no concern.

With higher tech more expensive lamps you can switch more frequently

With LEDs you don't need to worry the same.


Mythbusters did a fairly scientific study of this.
IIRC the conclusions were .........
Traditional light bulbs - if you are out of the room for more than 0.36 seconds then it is worthwhile turning the light off. They took into account reduced lifespan.
Fluorescent tubes - because of higher starting current the time was about 20 seconds.
Can't remember results for modern bulbs, but IIRC it was similar to traditional bulbs.

The overall conclusion of the experiment was to switch off lights whenever you leave a room. Reduced lifespan is negligible compared to electric saved.
dpack

what they said

wear your night vis goggles for a low energy life Laughing
mark

frequent turning on and off reduces the life span of a Compact Fluorescent bulb quite a lot. The lifespans quoted are based on normal use.
In toilets etc they last loads shorter and quickly lose their full illuminating power (go dim) !

This can be a concern if you are concerned about increased mercury use or the fact that the bulbs are mainly manufactured then transported from china.

If you ensure you leave 20 minutes between switching off and on or vice versa and limit yourself to 30 on off cycles a day their should be no concern.

With higher tech more expensive lamps you can switch more frequently

With LEDs you don't need to worry the same.


Mythbusters did a fairly scientific study of this.
IIRC the conclusions were .........
Traditional light bulbs - if you are out of the room for more than 0.36 seconds then it is worthwhile turning the light off. They took into account reduced lifespan.
Fluorescent tubes - because of higher starting current the time was about 20 seconds.
Can't remember results for modern bulbs, but IIRC it was similar to traditional bulbs.

The overall conclusion of the experiment was to switch off lights whenever you leave a room. Reduced lifespan is negligible compared to electric saved.

The mythbusters thing I think focussed on electricity used NOT on the life reduction of the compact fluorescent bulbs (which is much higher than normal and full tube) and hence mercury and shipping carbon used (ie full eco impact) . I got my data from the manfacturers websites so it should be right ! They have no reason to downplay the lifespan!
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