Which requires more energy: leaving lights on or turning lights on & off when leaving/ enternig a room?

Answer 1

leaving the lights on. In the small surge of energy it takes to turn light on, it would only be efficient to leave them on if you are leaving to room for thirty seconds or less.

Mythbusters just did an episode on lights this week.

Answer 2

Yes Mythbusters did do a test this week. The only light that made any difference was the long flourescent tubes. If your going to be out of the room less than 23 seconds don't turn it off. Otherwise turn all your lights off when you leave a room. You will save energy, and the life of the bulb.

Answer 3

I looked into this recently as I've been on a big energy saving kick lately. I read in a few places that it takes less energy to shut lights off and turn them back on than it does to leave them on for more than a few minutes (it may be as short as 30 seconds, I've just not seen that). This is with respect to incandescent lights. For fluorescent lights, I believe the cutoff time is 15 minutes.

Answer 4

Not only does turning your lights on and off cost more, but your lights will use much quicker from the surge of energy when you turn off and on.

If you contact your local hydroelectric company, they have the stats to tell you exactly how much it costs to leave a light on, what costs the most, etc. Here where I live, it costs 24$ to leave a 100watt lightbulb burning for one year... And 13$ to leave those new coiled energy bulbs lit... imagine the savings in a large home!

Answer 5

leaving them on wastes more energy. it doesnt take any energy to turn them on and off. you could also install a motion detector in a room that has a high traffic flow that makes you turn lights on and off. that way you are saving energy and not being bothered by turning lights on and off. or even changing the lights to compact floueresnt lights which save alot more energy that incandescent. that way you can leave the lights on if you want and will still be saving energy with flourescent lights.

Answer 6

I artwork at a center that teaches approximately electricity. We do various experiments with easy bulbs and use watt meters. it particularly is actual that a CFL makes use of actually extra electricity whilst it particularly is first became on, even nonetheless it particularly is an quite small volume. a fifteen watt CFl will use approximately 15.4 watts for approximately 10 seconds previously it is going right down to fifteen watts. some CFL's take some seconds to "heat up" or come to finished brightness and turning them on and stale oftentimes can shrink their life. I actually have a CFL in my laundry room it relatively is probably going one in each and every of the rooms that the sunshine gets became on and stale oftentimes and that i've got not replaced it in over 5 years. verify you get and capacity megastar bulb to substantiate high quality and long life. So, you're suitable, you shop capacity by making use of turning off the lighting fixtures furnishings whilst no longer in use.

Answer 7

If you are constantly going back and forth every few seconds turning them off and on each time requires more energy.

Answer 8

depends on how often you leave and enter a room,,, if it takes you less than 5 minutes to leave and enter a room,, it's better that you leave the lights on,,,

Answer 9

what a coincedence myth busters says turn em off,30 sec or les

Answer 10

AS long as the lights are on they are drawing currant.