Turn off the light | Energy saving

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Turn off the light | Energy saving

Switch off lights when they're not in use.

Leaving your lights on when no one is in the room is a huge waste of energy and money.

This is probably the easiest switch you can make. Rather than leaving a light on when you exit a room, simply switch it off. It couldn’t be easier!

The less time you spend with the lights on, the more energy you save. A normal bulb will use 60 watts of energy an hour, meaning that you could conserve nearly 22,000 watts of energy per year by just switching off one bulb for one hour every day. That’s enough energy to power one months worth of evening TV viewing!

Also try to consider how many lights you need on, or if you need one on at all. Is a lamp really necessary in a sunlit room? Do you need three separate sources of light in your kitchen?

By making small changes like this you’ll soon be saving energy and money.

Other ways to save energy around the home

Switch to low-energy lightbulbs
Use the natural light
Go for low-energy security lights

In most homes lighting accounts for 10 - 15 per cent of the electricity bill.

An average household could save as much as £25 per year just by switching off any unused lights around the home.

Cut your electricity spend even further by opting for low-energy lightbulbs. Click here to browse through a large range of low energy lighting options and low energy light bulbs in the Big Green Shop.

Been there, done that? We'd love to hear your own thoughts, ideas and experiences about this suggestion!
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Easy peasy! Just always

Submitted by jar1 on Tue, 04/09/2007 - 16:31.

Easy peasy! Just always check lights are off when you walk out of the room. It will prolong the life of the bulb too. And, not only are you doing your bit for the environment but your bills will be cheaper too!

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Low energy light bulbs

Submitted by Brian Rodgers on Mon, 14/01/2008 - 11:46.

I have had several comments concerning turning off low energy light bulbs that they use a surge of energy when turning on and that if you were to turn off a low energy light bulb in a room you regularly visit you could use more energy than leaving it turned on. Can anyone add anything to this?

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Low energy surge

Submitted by Al Swan on Sun, 27/01/2008 - 02:02.

Having just replaced the bulbs in our most-used rooms with Megaman energy-saving compact fluorescents, I have noticed a distinct lack of energy when they are switched on - in fact, after I had first swapped them I thought I had maded a terrible mistake because they seemed so dim! But they just take several minutes to reach their full brightness. So I'm not sure about the "energy surge" theory.

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its a habbit

Submitted by jemstacey on Mon, 04/02/2008 - 16:12.

i find myself turning them off when i leave now even if someone else is in there. lol

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me too!

Submitted by starchild on Sat, 09/02/2008 - 21:54.

I'm always going around turning the lights off too - it's one of my bug bears.
One thing to make sure is that we don't get lulled into a false sense of security - I know that friends of mine have fitted CFLs, so now they think it is ok to leave them on all the time. That kind of defeats the object of it for me LOL!

I've been known to 'leave people in the dark' too, jemstacey!!

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Maybe I go too far...

Submitted by sdkiduk on Fri, 14/03/2008 - 11:53.

This has become such a habit for me that I frequently find myself turning off the light when there is still someone in the room. Occasionally, I will enter a dimly lit room and decide not to turn the light on, as I am only planning on being in the room for a few minutes. However, when I do this I often turn the light ON when I leave the room, as I am so used to flicking the swith on my way out. I always realize and turn it back off though. :P

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me too

Submitted by imnotdead on Tue, 24/06/2008 - 12:11.

this made me smile - i do this too - turning the light on when I go out of the room!

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