Myth Debunking: Flicking the Switch

By Whitney

by Whitney

In these post-Inconvenient Truth times, we are all more conscious of the energy and resources we consume in our house. I am always trying to be more consistent about turning off the lights when I leave a room. The dynamics of my house have changed, however, now that my nearly five-year old is old enough to be in a room when I am not. He is independently turning lights on and off. Or “on” at least. “Off” seems harder to remember.

Sidenote: A useful job for an older child is to run back through the house before an outing, checking each room to make sure all the lights are off. I have been assigning my son this task to keep him occupied while I struggle with his little sister’s shoes and jacket to get us out the door.

Now my little one, age two, has just discovered the joy of turning on the lights “all by mahself.” She drags a stool in place, climbs up and goes to town on that light switch. How powerful she must feel, watching the room brighten and dim under her control.

When I was a kid, I heard and maybe you did too, that if you are going to turn a light on again soon after turning it off, that you may as well leave it on because of some sort of likelihood of burning out the bulb faster.

Newsflash: It’s not true for incandescent light bulbs.

“Incandescent lighting is not affected by the number of times a light is turned on and off,” says Joseph Ray-Barreau with the American Lighting Association.
That’s your debunked myth for the day. Next week, tune in to read my discussion of alligators in sewers.