My Ongoing Struggle With Turning Off The Lights
I admit it. I lack something in my genetic makeup that reminds me to turn off the lights when I leave the room. I mean, that is the only explanation for it, right? Any reasonable person would turn off the light when they leave the room.
I’m not the only one though. My spouse leaves the TV on in every room he visits that has one “just in case” he’ll be back to see it again. That drives me crazy. The TV, I notice. I feel like I am always turning off the upstairs TV just to find the downstairs one playing to no audience. And he’s teaching my son to turn it on by example. My son will turn on the TV as he walks by and just keep on walking. Nice. Argh.
But back to me and my turning off the light failure. I’ve found CFLs make me inclined to turn off the lights even less for some reason. Maybe because they use less energy. Maybe because I heard somewhere that CFLs should be on for at least 15 minutes and I often do not need a light on that long. I don’t know, but I find the closet light in the master bedroom on all the time and I know it was me. Or my spouse. But mostly me.
I was reading on Brip Blap a few weeks ago about using a rubber band on your wrist to dissuade negative thoughts and habits. Maybe I should wear a rubber band on my wrist but I’d forget to snap myself when I left a light on because I don’t even notice myself doing it.
So is there a cure? Constant vigilance? Maybe I can be reprogrammed? Hope? I’d really like to reduce our usage and electric bill even more, but I don’t even notice it until I come back to the room I left and find the light already on….
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October 20th, 2007 at 10:03 am
We have the same genetic makeup! LOL I think I have cured myself though…I visualize (I’m a visual person) that I’ve just left the water running when I find a light on. I mean I wouldn’t leave the faucet on when I left a room (see, I do have boundaries).
October 20th, 2007 at 10:39 am
My family was like this. Being around Micah, though, made me change. He’s quite vigilant and sees it as a waste of money. But then he grew up very very poor, so wasting money was putting the family at risk.
We sometimes leave one livingroom light on at night when we go out.
I think CFLs like to be one for 15 minutes, it helps their life expectancy. My parents were under the impression that this was a matter of hours and that you shouldn’t turn them off if you were going to turn them on within an hour. I ran some internet searches which contradicted these assumptions.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Growing up, my Dad drilled into us kids that we had to turn off the lights. It was a constant source of irritation for my Dad, I’m sure. But he did get through to me.
Another way to save electricity might be setting your thermostat higher in summer and lower in winter. In Colorado, where I live, that’s the bulk of the electrical bill.
October 21st, 2007 at 11:11 pm
My dad is similar to Ryan’s in that he was always telling us to turn off the light if we left the room. I’m really good at turning lights off. Another thing I just learned (as a result of the gas/electric bills increasing) is that even having things plugged in uses electricity. I went around the house and unplugged everything that I don’t use, and I think it shows in my bill. I had the iron plugged in, lamps that I never use, my cell phone charger, etc.. but now I pay attention, and only plug those things in when I need it. Try it.
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I do set the thermostat higher or lower, but I found I am too lazy to unplug everything. I try. But I fail. Ah well.
Running water sounds good… if I notice I am leaving the light on. I think it is so bad I don’t even notice now. Ugh.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:03 am
Thanks for the link - maybe you need to have someone ELSE snap the rubber band to remind you
A serious suggestion, though: Think about getting motion-sensitive light switches. I’ve never done a lot of cost comparison, but one would probably cost $20. I did this in our garage, since I forget to turn off the lights there all the time. It’s motion sensitive and light sensitive, so if it’s sunny out, it doesn’t turn on. In the house I’ve considered doing it in the main room we forget to turn off the lights - the laundry room.
The TV is bad enough if your husband leaves it turned on, but it’s constantly searching for the infrared signal from the remote and that costs money if it’s on OR off. We leave our HDD/DVD on all the time, too. I have thought about putting a timer on the whole TV/satellite/DVD setup so it at least shuts down from midnight to 6 or something like that.
Sigh. Best thing might just be to disconnect the electricity and read by firelight but I’m not ready to start rolling Abe-Lincoln-style just yet. If you have CFLs, I probably wouldn’t beat myself up too much… at least the energy drain is significantly lower.