Leave the light on

Answer 1

I assume the questioner here is really asking the question "Is it more efficient to leave a light on vs. turning it off. There has been a longtime myth that it takes as much energy to turn a light on as it does to run that same light for a day. This is just a myth.

To understand exactly why this is a myth we must understand what the myth actually says. The myth says the energy consumed by the light in the time it takes to light up is equal to the energy it consumes for the entire day. So imagine turning on one light and sitting outside your house and watching your power meter turn for 24 hours. Besides being extremely bored you will have noticed that the meter turned pretty slowly but it had in fact spun around many many times.

The myth says from the time you flick the switch to the time the light lights up you meter will make more revolutions than it does during the next 24 hours. As you can well imagine this would cause the meter to spin so quickly that you might think your kitchen knives could be sharpened on this spinning meter.

Fortunately this doesn't happen. Walk outside and have a friend turn a light on and off and you will notice no crazy spinning meter. When the light goes on the meter moves. When the light goes off the meter stops. This goes for every light you will use inside you home incandescent florescent or compact florescent

Good luck to you and your lights and if you want to save money buy the compact florescent bulbs you will be glad you did they use one quarter of the energy as the rest. Thanks for reading!