Should We Turn Off the Lights When Leaving?

“Since the cost of power saved by turning lamps off may be over-balanced by the cost of shorter lamp life, it may not pay to turn them off for very short periods” [Potter and Roehr 1964]. We developed a decision model to rationally determine whether a policy exhorting facility users to switch off lights is optimal. This model determines the balance between electricity costs and replacement costs for systems using fluorescent lighting.