lets say u wanna turn lights off to save power. is it worth the bother?
let's estimate it takes 15 seconds, and you save the light being on for 1 hour on average
100 watt bulb, 10 cents per kilowatt hour. that means 15 seconds is worth 1 cent.
multiply a bit. a min is 4 cents. an hour is 240 cents.
so, who wants $2.40, and who wants an extra hour of sleep?
or an extra hour of work, which will generate more than $2.40
and this neglects the human costs of people having to devote thought to remembering to turn the lights off, and such. which actually dwarf both the time and money amounts in question.
i suppose i should concede that for someone who obsessively turns lights off, trying not to will probably be costly. however, getting into such a state is bad.
oh here's a source on prices. looks like it's less than 10 cents.
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*Environmentalists glare disapprovingly at Elliot*
yup, it's true.
and that's what makes them bad people
we had one of those flourescent strip lights in the kitchen when I was a child. It takes more energy to turn it on than to leave it on all the time.
My mother used to get really cross when people left the room and turned the light off... answer THAT one, environ-mentalists. :)
I remember trying to argue with my father about this. It didn't seem to matter. However, a light isn't likely to just be left on for an hour. It might well be on for 10 hours more than it would be if a person turned it off when it wasn't being needed.
10 hours is long even if you're leaving the house or sleeping. (sleep is more like 7-9 hours, and leaving the house is usually only 1-3). turning lights off if you're leaving the house all day, and not rushed, isn't a bad idea (but by no means hugely important either)
but anyway, the ads says to turn the lights off if you leave the room. lots of ppl listened. so the scenario is usually turning them on and off as you move around the house. usually they'll only be off for 5-30 min.
i slept with the lights on the other day (not even on purpose). how much did this cost? prolly about 30 cents. no big deal. turning lights off isn't the way to save the world.
meanwhile, i keep 2 computers on pretty much 24/7. i wonder how much power that takes. more than all the lights i use, i'm sure. heh.
I solved the problem by putting my bed right by the light switch. That way I can just reach over and slap the wall, saving myself all that excess movement and getting out of bed. I also thought I could solve this problem by getting married and letting my wife get up and turn off the lights. Sadly this backfired. She does turn off the lights, but instead of letting my lay around in our now darkened house she makes me do things like mow the yard and paint the house and "get those damend computer parts off of my table". So I guess its all a zero-sum game. dammit. I'm just gonna have to get up and move.
lights by bed trick is useful. i had to move my bed though for better view of the computer, so it's not by the light switch anymore. last night i slept an hour then got up and turned the lights off (and checked my email) and went back to sleep. ah well.
my bed is hella far from the light switch to the main room, so it's really annoying when I lay on my bed and then end up getting sleepy cuz i have a hard time sleeping with this particular light on; it's very invasive or whatever. Just goes after your eyes. ^^.
But for turning on a light in the middle of the night i have a lamp by my bed, go me!
I always turn light off when i leaving for the day, but otherwise don't bother.