We have sensors in most rooms, so they turn off automatically when we enter or leave the room within a minute or two. The downside to these is if you stay in the room, you need to move once in a while to keep it on or you need to move the switch to 'on' so the sensor doesn't kick in.

I leave one light on in my kitchen - the heart of the house - and one light on in the living room where I mostly spend my evenings. All other rooms I might go into during the course of the evening - light on when I enter, light off when I exit. Occasionally I'll leave the light on in the laundry room to remind me to finish up a load of wash. Only leave external lights on if I go out, or if someone will be coming to my house. At least 3 of my neighbors have their exterior lights on until the wee hours - the light shines in my windows - motion sensor lights would be a lot more neighborly!

Thank you for reminding me of my next project,replacing out dated exterior fixtures . I am starting at the outside doors. I am thinking of going the extra mile with a night sensor also. I am not always home before dark and ado not like the idea of eveyone knowing it. Your neighbors should use yellow lights or I guess they do not know about wattage.

My husband often accuses me of being part vampire, he'll walk into the house and wonder how I can possibly prepare dinner in the kitchen with minimal dusk light coming from the window, he switches on all the lights and POW it's like a solar flare in the eyeballs!

I love driving by beautiful homes & being able to catch a glimpse of what's inside. It's better than any home decor magazine! Now that I own a glass & concrete loft, I return the favor. I leave my lights on all the time. I've seen cars park outside & people even take pictures. My neighbors have actually "invited" their guests to tour my home (without any notice). It's a little strange but I always oblige. I completely understand their curiosity because I also can't resist peeking when they leave their lights on!

It depend on the room. If I have company over all lights on!

I changed most of our room lighting to LEDs. The newer ones provide wonderful light if you stick to Kelvin values around 2700. Higher Kelvin values may be good for task lighting but I find them too harsh for ambient light. I have LED ceiling lights and wall washers in some strategic places that I often turn on at night to dispel the gloom and give the hall and the downstairs rooms a soft glow. The main lights and any task lights get turned on and off as I use a room or leave it. I still have some mr16s that I haven't replaced. I'm waiting for the right LED replacement product. No luck so far, but the field is advancing so quickly that I'm sure something will be available soon. As for exterior lights, I've had ours on motion sensors for as long as I can remember. Frugal, useful, and very welcoming.

When we go out we leave one light and the TV on in the living room (for our Budgie,& security) her bedtime is 9pm so lights go out then,but we're usually home by 9pm. When we go to bed, the only light on is a little blue night light plugged into the stove, it lights the way to the bathroom. All the lights we use are the curly energy saving ones. With a few other changes we've been able to drop 10% off our energy bill and working on dropping it even more!

My house is always the first in the neighborhood to have its lights on of an evening. That's because of my astigmatism (eyes) in which I have trouble seeing in low light. I really struggle when I am at someones house and they leave the lights off till late or in a dim restaurant. Let there be light ... please. Trouble is, I/we all forget to turn off the lights when we leave a room, so gradually every light in the house gets turned on. Before bed, I always check that they're all off. We don't have nightlights but there are plenty of LCD clocks/switches to light the way.

shars55
10:57 AM
"All my bathrooms have lights that turn off autocratically after a few minutes"

That is something I would like to see!

I was raised to turn off lights when I left the room and I'm pretty good at doing that still, except for my dining room because you can see every dining room window from the outside and I think it looks so homey and inviting with the lights on.

Depends on the time of day and time of year. I don't like a drear winter house so will have lights on in the rooms I'm moving between. In summer it doesn't seem to be as much of an issue. It's night time now and there is one set of lights on in the kitchen and one in the living room ... Not too exaggerated

Grainfarmer.....oops! My bad! One day I'm going to learn to proof read before I hit submit!!! Lol! AUTOMATICALLY!

Although we put LED lights in all rooms and could leave every light in the house on and use less energy than a hair dryer, we turn lights off unless we are in the room.

I generally remember to turn off all bedroom and bathroom lights when not in the room but at night, the kitchen, foyer and living room lights stay on until bedtime

It's a waste to leave lights on! You wouldn't leave the water running in your kitchen or leave your car running! So save some money and this earth that we all share and turn off your lights!!!

Awwww.....I knew the light police would show up sooner or later to scold people.

Necessary lights will be on and others will be on or off.

Millions of lights through-out house on timers. I hate dark rooms. When we are at our summer home a lot, there is always lots of light at our home, and cars in the driveway help the lived-in look. The power company recently had a big promotion and came to our summer home, in the USA and replaced 20 incandescent bulbs with LED, for free. Plus other bits of information on how to save energy money. I have lots of little lamps everywhere, especially in the dark hallway and bathroom with no window. There I have a small Ikea lamp on 24 hours a day. At our USA summer home, the front porch lights are halogen, and will not stay on if it is light out.

Personally, I appreciate the light/planet police,

Personally, I like freedom, and personal responsibility. Social engineering is an unwanted and unneeded curse to human life.

Here in Ontario Canada we are on smart meters. Even before these were installed, we were very energy conscience, and now I suppose even more so.

Weezse

Depends if I'm naked.

I want to get sensor lights in walk in closet... My hubby always leaves his bath vanity lights on (3 above sink) drives me nuts. living room light on from dusk until we go bed. kitchen is usually always on...i like leaving hall light on but hubby goes behind me and shuts it off--grrr....our ceiling fans on mostly all the time all seasons.

We have all LED bulbs in our house, but I married one of the original light police and he pretty much follows me around and does his thing...

Something my mom always had us do as kids. Now just do it without thinking.

I keep lights on in main and important areas, like main entrance, corridor, porch, living room etc so that while coming back home late in the night, i do not walk in to the dark. all other lights are off.

I like a room well lit while I'm working around my home. If I'm planning to return to the room shortly, I'll leave the lights on, and I'll often leave my more energy efficient kitchen fluorescents on during the day if I'm working in the kitchen/dining rooms. But I'll turn off the dining room floods if I'm done for awhile. When we visit my father-in-law, my brother-in-law follows me around the house turning off any light I turn on. I have to go through a dark hall and windowless bathroom in the middle of the hall to get to the room where we stay. If I turn on the hall light to go down the hall, there is no switch by the bathroom door to turn off the hall light mid hall, only at the ends of the hall. And I'm usually going to get something and come back out. When I come out of the room only minutes later, my brother in law has turned off the lights so I have to walk through a dark hall to find the switch! To boot, energy efficient CFL bulbs are installed in the hall. However, he will leave a light on all day in the bedroom where he stays. I often take our children to visit without my husband during their vacations while my husband is back at home working. I feel like I'm not welcome to use the lights in his fathers home when his brother is visiting too! As my tween daughter would say, "cray cray"!

I always turn off the lights when I leave the room.

I grew up with parents who instilled energy conservation and recycling before there was a green movement. #BeSeenBeSafe

I had an older sister who would turn them off for me, literally, and not without yelling at me first. She's still the same way after 40 years but in her own home. Thankfully, I haven't lived with her for a loooong time so I've gotten over it without counseling.

yes most times I turn off the lights when I leave a room but sometimes I leave them on if its way too dark in the house.

We have several lights on 24 hours a day. My husband insists on that (I will admit to turning some off when he is at work) and he pays the light bill. We also have accent lighting outdoors. I would be embarrassed to tell you how many light bulbs are in the basement den even though there are large windows in the room.

Turn OFF the lights! It is totally wasteful to leave lights on. I hope at least, you have switched to CFLs or LED lights to reduce wattage / energy use.
You may consider leaving one low level light on in a main room for ambience.

Turn the lights off! I can still hear my Dad tell me this............

Our lights are on motion sensors. When you walk into a room they turn themselves on. When you leave (or don't move at all) they turn off. This doesn't work in all rooms (like the master bedroom) so we turn them off when we leave.

Turning lights off is a good thing, but it seems everything you would leave plugged in now has a light on it, like the TV, the TV digital box, your gaming system, the phone, etc., etc.

Is it needed?

You are so right, Vicky. One way to deal with that is to use power strips and turn off the strip when the items are not in use. It is surprising how much energy those "on" lights consume.

Lots of natural light windows and more windows!

Yes, we always switch off lights when not in use or not needed and water heaters too. Everyone does in our home.

My lighting is controlled by timers more than switches. I come home to a bright cheerful home in the Winter darkness !

I try to always turn my lights off. Save on the electricity bill!
-Angeline, GKB

I voted for other. It all depends when you return to a room or what time of the day. Five years ago we changed all bulbs to LED lamps, a great Eco saver.

It depends on for how long I will leave the room and the kind of light bulbs. It can be more energy efficient to leave them on, instead of turning them on and off several times a day.

I have to turn off the lights.....I guess it's from growing up that way. Unless it's LED, it will be off when I'm not in there!

My apt is a 450 sqft 1BR in NYC. It is bright during the day, incl. the kitchen and bathroom, so I don't need lighting.

At night, I either go out or stay home to work or do things on my computer, so i don't want any lights on, except in the kitchen and the bathroom, where I use a couple 0.5w LED night lamps with a light detector so they don't stay on during the day ($1 ea. from the dollar store, and they last forever). If i need to do something else, I put on my head LED spotlight because I only need to see the areas I'm looking at. It uses 2 AA rechargeable batteries. I recharge them about once a month.
Just in case, I have 2 lamps, 1 per room, each using a 5.8w led bulb (bought 2yrs ago, on sale for $5/ea. at Ace Hardware).

My goal: go off-grid for lighting first, using leds, small solar panels, and light+motion detectors. Eventually, prove that you can live comfortably 100% off-grid in NYC (and put ConEd out of business!)

Biggest challenges: fridge (March-Sept) and A/C (July-Aug).

Although I do have some lights on timers I always turn off lights when leaving a room.

nicr

Your "turn off bedroom light" topic in the article is very beautiful, but I read another person's article, and it was also very beautiful and details. But I could not distinguish which one is more beautiful and which one I will accept more.

If you want to read this:

Article link:

https://smartdeluxehome.com/turn-off-bedroom-light-without-getting-out-of-bed/

stay well