?? about turning electric lights on/off to conserve electricity...?

Question

Someone once told me: If you're going to be in a room within a short time its better to leave the light on rather than turn them off and then back on again when you come back in order to save electricity. True or false?

Answer 1

False.

Replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs will save a large amount of energy.

Answer 2

When you turn on the lights there is a brief surge of electricity or amperes (current). So they are saying it is better to leave the light on and avoid that surge of power.

I would say that most of your light bulbs burn out when you turn on the switch and they are starting up.

So the question is the amount of time you are going to be out of the room. Probably if you are going to be out of the room for more than 10 mins, then turn the lights off.

The amount of power used, isn't really going to make any difference at all. Unless you have a bunch of lights on for no reason. Good luck.

Answer 3

To save electricity, turn them off. It takes almost no extra electricity to turn a light on, even a fluorescent light. But to save MONEY, do not turn them on and off to often. It is no problem for incandescent lights, but fluorescent lights get damaged a little with each on/off cycle, and turning them on and off to often will shorten the bulb (or tube) life. That does not waste electricity but it does waste bulbs, which cost money.

Answer 4

That would probably save you a few dollars a year per room. If that kind of money is important to you then do it. If you're not that tight on money, forget it.

Answer 5

It is false.

Power is proportional to (i^2 * r * t).
Now you can see there is afctor time(t) here. Hence as long as you keep the lights on the power would be consumed.