Lightbulbs, electricity and costs

[Waugh-terfall]

Right, I live in a rented Victorian(?) terraced house with 3 other students, two of whom have their parents pay for everything... All three are girls, no pictures or anything by the way, they're all menstrual dogs... Anyway, they demand the heating be on, fine but I just got snapped for turning the upstairs landing light off on my way down for dinner when the only other person upstairs shouts at me to turn it on as she might fall down the stairs... A. Her room is furthest from them and B. each upstairs bedroom has a switch next to the door. When I bring up this point and remind her that I pay my own bills one of the others pipes up that it actually costs more to turn a light on each time as the bulb needs firing up in that fecking annoying condescending manner that she does so love...

Is there actually any truth in this?

[F93]

Yes, but only if you're stupid enough to perhaps, let's say, turn the lights on and off each time you leave a room, even for the toilet. Turning them on and off the least amount of times is the most economical way to do things, mainly because bulbs are efficient now, so they work better over a longer-term period...


But, she probably didn't know that, just made up something....

Tell her not to bother with things above her station and that there's some ironing to do, that'll put her in her place.

[mfmman]

What type of lamp?

[Waugh-terfall]

They're all energy saving bulbs apart from in the Bathroom and Kitchen. I'm turning it off as everyone is watching TV in the living room, cooking in the Kitchen or as I was, working in my room, the landing light needn't be on, this one girl just wanted it on to see down the stairs (not tricky even in the dark...) when she left her room in five mins (only stated after I'd turning it off).

Also, it'd be nice to know when Combi-boilers, or whatever the ones that heat up water when it's needed are called, became common place in the home... Thanks

ETA: Just found this:

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer...

Can I now rub it in her face demand she makes me a sandwich?

Edited by Waugh-terfall on Wednesday 13th October 19:18

[mfmman]

Yes there is a start inrush but a tiny amount, they are not a 70's style florescent tube.

You link refers to lamp life as a problem as well

Edited by mfmman on Wednesday 13th October 19:23

[Cock Womble 7]

mfmman said:

they are not a 70's style florescent tube.

I used to love the "plink plink" noise florescent tubes made on start-up.

[TheLurker]

Turning an energy saving bulb on tends to take around the same ammount of energy as 'running' them for 30seconds. So if its off for longer than half a minute, it will save energy to run.

However, bulbs tend to fail by the number of cycles they have (especialy the old incandesant bulbs), so if your turning them on and off every minute, it may be cheaper to leave them on :; Modern energy bulbs have arround 10000 cycles untill failure.

So, in awnser to your question, I beleive you are right. Well done. Time for some VBRJ (PH stylee)

[Simpo Two]

I turned on an energy-saving lightbulb once and I swear the room got darker.

Tungsten for me, and in true survivalist fashion I calculated my lifetime requirement and filled the loft with them. Sorted


ETA: Ask the menstrual dog (nice phrase!) to calculate the energy used by an electric darkbulb in 30 seconds.

Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 13th October 22:38

[JustinP1]

Waugh-terfall said:

They're all energy saving bulbs apart from in the Bathroom and Kitchen. I'm turning it off as everyone is watching TV in the living room, cooking in the Kitchen or as I was, working in my room, the landing light needn't be on, this one girl just wanted it on to see down the stairs (not tricky even in the dark...) when she left her room in five mins (only stated after I'd turning it off).

Also, it'd be nice to know when Combi-boilers, or whatever the ones that heat up water when it's needed are called, became common place in the home... Thanks

ETA: Just found this:

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer...

Can I now rub it in her face demand she makes me a sandwich?

Edited by Waugh-terfall on Wednesday 13th October 19:18

How much money are you arguing about here?

I pay 8.9p per kWh of electricity. Lets say you pay 10p

Energy saving bulbs are what, 15 watts?

Therefore, it needs to be on for 66 hours to cost you 10p.

Lets say one of them leaves the light on for a whole extra hour. That costs the household 0.15 pence. Split between 4, that is costing you 0.037 pence. Yes, it has to burn for a full 27 hours for it to cost you one pence.

So, by the time you have walked to the light switch and/or argued about it for 30 seconds, you have expended more energy in your body - which you have to pay for in food than you would have ever saved.

How anal are you?

[Waugh-terfall]

JustinP1 said:

How anal are you?

Very.

There's no argument, it's just that she used her trademark condescending 'shut up you ignorant manchild' and I was curious as to whether she actually had any right to use it...

Cock Womble 7 said:

mfmman said:

they are not a 70's style florescent tube.

I used to love the "plink plink" noise florescent tubes made on start-up.

Same, the kitchen flouro-tube does that, though it's less "plink-plink" more "babong babong plink!"

Edited by Waugh-terfall on Wednesday 13th October 23:08

[Simpo Two]

JustinP1 said:

Therefore, it needs to be on for 66 hours to cost you 10p.

Then I'd give the bint a 1p piece and say 'There, that's the leccy paid for for 6.6 hours, now go and make me a cup of tea love'. (the second bit is optional depending on much you value your nadgers)

[Wacky Racer]

Simpo Two said:

JustinP1 said:

Therefore, it needs to be on for 66 hours to cost you 10p.

Then I'd give the bint a 1p piece and say 'There, that's the leccy paid for for 6.6 hours, now go and make me a cup of tea love'. (the second bit is optional depending on much you value your nadgers

[B17NNS]

Simpo Two said:

I turned on an energy-saving lightbulb once and I swear the room got darker

truely loathesome things.

[Conian]

a normal old style light bulb
if you leave the room even for 1 second it is cheaper to switch it off then back on when you come back

modern strip lights
if you are leaving the room for more than 25 seconds, switch it off

[Simpo Two]

Waugh-terfall said:

"babong babong plink!"

Actually having run that through in my mind that's quite a good description. Maybe a pause before the plink?



I'm off to wonder what 'onomatopoeic' sounds like.

[Murph7355]

What are they studying? And how big are their norks?

Essentially you should simply say to them that they are girls, so are ill equipped to talk about electricity, let alone the ensuing bills.

The norks question is irrelevant, except to say that everyone has a redeeming feature. Or two.