Comments on: How Much Money Does Turning Off the Lights Really Save?

By: BRUCE

BRUCE — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:18:09 +0000

Is it worth leaving the lamp light on for 8 hours rather than turning it off after 1 hour, turning it on an hour later, off two hours later, ad nausea, until after several more on’s and off’s, at last turning it off after the 8th hour? No kidding … I was taught – by a very intelligent although miserly friend – to believe saving on electricity is to leave the lamp until the 8th hour and turning it off thereafter until the next day.

By: Giorgio

Giorgio — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:56:00 +0000

This is silly. Just turn the lights off whenever you leave a room. Turn the TV, radio, etc. off, too.

By: Santa Clause

Santa Clause — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:11:54 +0000

Im doing a science ploject and this is really worth it! This will $ave alot of money!!!!!!!!!

By: Connie

Connie — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:23:35 +0000

This is slightly OT but its part of the unplugging routine. There was a Canadian morning news show (Canada AM) that had an insurance adjuster on talking about the biggest causes of insurance claims on household insurance. 1) electrical fires from counter appliances *explanation – when you can buy a toaster or coffeemaker for $10-20 the switch and the thermostats are not of the highest quality. Doesnt matter if you turn it off, the switch fails, you need to UNPLUG all small appliances like toasters kettles etc.
2) burst hoses for washing machines, diswashers toilet feeds etc. In most cases, by replacing the supplied hoses (which have a life expectancy of about 2 years) with the stainless steel shielded and strengthend hose (about $5-20 per hose) This one came to light for us when a toilet hose split in our basement. It was just lucky that I was sitting in the family room when it happened because if I had been upstairs it could have been hours and we had just come back from a 2 week vacation. Scary. The point – small changes can have big consequences.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:45:10 +0000

What if you consider in the equation that leaving a couple of lights on during a weekend get-away might be a cheap/easy way to deter break-ins…

By: Sense

Sense — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:18 +0000

That hourly wage doesn’t make sense…you say that’s what your hourly wage would be for a two minute effort…problem is it’s more like a bid job. You get paid for what you do, or only save what you’ve managed to do. In this case you turn off your 4 bulbs and only saved pennies because after your 2 minutes your job is done and that is all you saved…there was nothing more for you to do that day let alone the hour. So savings is still only pennies and you shouldn’t try to make it look like it’s more than it is by computing to an hourly wage. You are doing a construction job on a bid and you are going to get paid the same if you finish it in 2 minutes or 3 days. You get what you get for doing the job which in this case is turning off the lights for a couple pennies. Hardly seems worth it to me.

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:51:21 +0000

I recently heard that you really should unplug, not just turn off lamps, small appliances, etc.. but found that it is a pain to turn off televisions that use a satellite dish because then you have to reset it every time you turn them back on! Is it using much energy to have 3 televisions plugged in, but off?

By: Eleanor

Eleanor — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:57:08 +0000

I really enjoy the comments. I argue with my husband that if it is a matter of just a few minutes your leaving the room,less than five, you shoud leave the light on. He insists in turning them off if I leave for a minute or two.

By: Eleanor

Eleanor — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:51:50 +0000

When I leave the bathroom cum laundry for 2mins my husband turns the light off and i tell him that it cost more than to leave it on.

By: steve

steve — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:33:17 +0000

dj wrote,

“But,I had several CF light bulbs die within a month, so they weren’t cost effective. And two, it takes them too long to get bright…so we don’t buy them anymore.”

With the correct power supply, these bulbs should come on in less than half a second. If your bulbs are taking a long time to come on, it could indicate a problem with your electrical supply. That might be worth checking out, for safety reasons.
You could have an electrical problem in your house. If your fixtures are seriously undervolted, then that could affect the CF bulbs. Fluorescent ballasts “pump” up the voltage at the start phase to around 5000 Volts (yes, I wrote 5000 volts). If the incoming power supply is not to spec, they would have trouble reaching starting voltage, hence the hesitation in starting that you describe.

Or, you just bough a bum batch. Return them. They aren’t supposed to die in a year, let alone one month.

Just don’t throw them in the trash, they go to hazardous waste disposal!

By: steve

steve — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:24:25 +0000

“I find that the cfl bulbs never seem to last as long as their rated life”

–they are not meant to be put in fully enclosed fixtures because wtihout ventilation, there is the heat buildup that affects their longevity. That being said, I have several in enclosed fixtures and they seem to do fine.

However, I put the date of purchase on the base with a Sharpie and put the receipt in a dated file folder. When one goes out (has never happened to me yet) I will check against the warranty.

By: steve

steve — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:10:40 +0000

Recently commercial clients in my state (Massachusetts) were notified that they will be paying 30 cents per KW/HR.

I expect that residential rates will be heading that way soon, as well.

So Trent’s savings will be multiplied by three!

By: steve

steve — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:08:35 +0000

Someone asked about dimmer switches and power usage:

If your dimmer is relatively new, it is a Silicon Controlled Rectifier, which works like a switch turning the light on and off very very fast (up to a couple hundreds of times per second) to create dimming effect, so it does save energy.

If you have an older dimmer switch that is called a rheostat, it works by creating resistance, dimming the target bulbs by “chewing up” their electricity.In this case, the dimmer actually uses more energy when dimming than when on full!!!

Hope you don’t have one of those!

–steve

No, my understanding is the standard dimmer switch works by creating resistance, dimming the target bulbs by “chewing up” their electricity. So when you dim the lights to 1/2, they are still using the full amount they would when they are on at full.

Kind of sick!

By: roger johnson

roger johnson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:19:38 +0000

Another way to save money is to put the water heater on “pilot” mode, if you have a pilot light. Or even considering shutting the gas off going to it.

By: Lana

Lana — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:34:24 +0000

The best lightbulbs were made by Phillips, they automatically shut off after 20 minutes, no additional timer was needed. They were great in closets (many times you walk away and forget to turn these off). They were also great for bedside tables and night reading. When you fell asleep the light would shut itself off. These are no longer manufactured and I can’t think of a good reason why. I have one left that I read by at night and I’m sure it will outlast these new CF bulbs which I now understand can become health hazards when disposed of.

By: deepali

deepali — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:35:24 +0000

Mythbusters did an episode on this. I highly recommend checking it out.
And given how many houses there are in this country, if everyone turned off their lights when not in use, the savings becomes much more relevant. Especially when we’re whining and moaning about foreign dependence on oil, and the high cost of gas, etc.

And turning off/unplugging appliances makes the savings go up!

@Ron – your volcano comment is untrue. One single year of human-related emissions is 200x more than one single year of volcano-related emissions.

By: dj

dj — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:46:39 +0000

I borrowed a WATTS meter from our library. The utility company provides them. I checked out various appliances and electrical items. It was really surprising to find out who was still sucking electricity when you thought they were off. It was interesting to hookup the computer and running various apps, and put the computer in various states. I had just bought an “energy star” refrigerator at the time, so I was able to check the new with the old. The results were disappointing. For the most part now, if I’m not using something, or rarely use it, I unplug it.
I know Compact Fluorescent light bulbs are the thing now, and I care about the environment. But,I had several CF light bulbs die within a month, so they weren’t cost effective. And two, it takes them too long to get bright. We are good about keeping our lights off, but when we need them we want them and CF bulbs, at least in our house, take too long to get bright so we don’t buy them anymore.

By: Graham Cliff

Graham Cliff — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:25 +0000

Just go to http://www.lightpollution.org.uk and learn the wider issues of NOT turning off unwanted lights at night.
You will find some of the implications are really frightening for the future of our kids. On the LP 4 Kids page you can download a pdf asking folks “DON’T turn me on and then just leave MEEE!!”
Kids seem to love this and I have seen them pasted to the wall adjacent light switches in their schools. Maybe the kids can educate their parents to the vital need which we will soon have for energy conservation. Switching off unnecessary lights at night is real easy. You just need to be motivated to bother and just do it.
Graham Cliff.

By: Mo

Mo — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:33:14 +0000

Turning off the lights is huge! Connecticut Light and Power offered a rebate if you could reduce your power usage by 10/15/20% between June 30 and Sept 30, you would get the corresponding amount off your bill in October. Since hubby had lost his job in July, we signed up for the program (it wasn’t automatic, naturally) and we became Light Nazis. It was a huge change for us, we were so careless before. We didn’t change our bulbs, we simply turned off lights! In one bathroom there were 6 bulbs burning at once because of the design of the fixtures. When the program was completed we were shocked to see that we had cut back our usage by 27%. We were eligible for the 20% rebate! Woohoo. What a difference that made.

I agree with Eric- it seems silly to leave them on and kids should be taught to turn the lights off. But don’t get Cheetos on the light switch!

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:42:21 +0000

I agree with a couple people here that by turning devices and lights off you reduce global warming, reduce fossil fuel use, and prevent fires. In most places I’ve lived, the fire risk is significantly decreased by turning off lights since many times they have been on switched outlets. In that case, I turn off an entire section of wire and several outlets just by flipping a switch.

The only downside is that if you switch them on and off too frequently, you might lower bulb life slightly. But then, keeping the bulbs on all weekend would certainly lower the effective bulb life since you won’t be around to enjoy the light.

It seems silly not to just turn off lights when you leave a room. If you have kids, think of it as training for life rather than counting pennies saved.