Quote:

I've got some electrical engineering to learn before I'll truely know if my "enegry conservation efforts" are paying off. Too many assumptions (always turn off CRTs and room lights, but leave flourescents on because they consume more power when starting up)


Typical 4' flourescent bulb: 40W. Typical fixture: 2x40W = 80W consumption when "on".

Maximum permitted draw on typical circuit: 1500W.
Assume flourescents take 5-seconds to startup.
Absolute theoretical worst case possible power usage when turning on flourescent fixture is therefore 5-sec x 1500W; much (*much*) less in real life.

This is equivalent to "leaving them on" for 94 seconds absolute worst case.
(5 x 1500 / 80W = 93.75 seconds).

Conclusion: turn them off if planning to be out of the room for more than a minute and a half.

Note: this calculation ignores cost of replacement of dead bulbs due to too many on/off cyles.

Cheers