Energy cost of a light bulb

Hi
having a little disagreement with my new (German) roommate.
does anyone know what it costs to run a simple 60 watt bulb for, say, 30 minutes?
(in hamburg if that matters)
and if it costs more to turn it on and off several times rather than just leaving it on?
how does one find out this info?
I am certainly willing to abide by the least expensive option, what ever it is...
I would like to just leave the light on while cook dinner or whatever and run in and out of the kitchen.

thanks, tor

I have no idea but the question is interesting so I hope someone will soon come up with the (correct) answer.

This is from my own website:

http://www.androv-medical.com/product.php/60/1/

Energy Savings:
Assuming 8p per unit, over 10,000 hours the 23W uses 230KW costing approx £18. A 100W ordinary bulb would use 1000KW costing £80 over the same period. The saving in electricity cost would therefore be £62, which is over 4 times the cost of the bulb.

So you need to just know the "cost per unit" in Germany - and I have no idea about that!

But based on my figures at UK rates of 8p a unit you would spend 48 pounds on 10,000 hours of using a 60W unit. That is 0.48p per hour. 0.24p per 30 minutes or 0.35 cents per 30 minutes converted.

So if you did this every single day of the year, you would waste 1.27 Euros in electricity.

However if you PM me your address I will send you a FREE FULL SPECTRUM ENERGY SAVING bulb (no strings) for your kitchen. The 15W is therefore same brightness but 4 times more economic than your 60W unit. You can then tell him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine (as it certainly will with my bulb!!!).

Ho hum.

p.s. German website for those that prefer is www.androv-medical.de

But is it better to keep a light on rather than switch it off for a few minutes and back on again?

I seem to remember (sketchy recollection here!) that it's more economic to leave on flourescents on for long periods than repeatedly switch them on and off...as for normal bulbs, I'd imagine switching them off is a better way to go because of the large amount of energy lost to heat from them...

We'll all be dead when the effects of light bulbs get so bad the seas rise etc. Does it really matter?

It is all here baby:

http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_h...m/mytopic=12280

So if you are using incandescent bulbs you should in theory turn them off every time - but - 90% of what they produce is heat, so turning it off in Winter means you will then spend fractionally more on heating PLUS you will degrade the life of the actual bulb.

So I would argue to leave them on in Winter because 90% of the 1.27 Euros WASTED annually that we calculated will be producing beneficial heat. So only really blowing 13 cents per annum!!! And I could argue that the 13 cents blown is offset by not shortening the life cycle of the bulb.

Seems to be a bit of an urban myth that switching any of these lights ON and OFF sucks power - but it will wear out the bulbs quicker.

Fact is if anyone really gives a monkeys they should run Energy Saving bulbs 'cos they are 4 times more efficient.

p.s. Your new flatmate sounds like an anal twat.

thanks johnny! i'll send for a bulb.. until then i'll just put let's say 30 cents a month into a jar for the electririticy bill. maybe that will placate the mamma's boy.
wie gesagt, he's german... should i go into how he flips out when i throw the wrapper from my cheese slice into the wrong sack?! YELLOW!

Kinda funny that he's worried about a 60 W bulb when you're cooking dinner. An electric stoves uses upwards of 2000 W, depending on temp settings and number of burners in use. So, if I did my maths right, 5 minutes of extra stove time equals up to nearly 3 hours of light. Same for things like water cookers, electric irons, hair dryers, and god forbid, clothes dryer.

I'd just get an energy saver bulb as advised and be sure to turn out every light that he hasn't used in the last 30 seconds.

It obviously does when you have a German flatmate.

now get this...
he won't wash his dishes if there isn't space in the drying rack, and he only puts away the dishes he washes...

Kick him out. He is obviously too German for you.

I'm sharing an office with another one-man business, and I believe I can feel the pain. I bring fresh buns for breakfast every morning and we had a serious discussion about why I expected him to do the dishes for *both* of us instead of only for himself. Now he does wash my dishes as well, but only the ones that were used during breakfast. He left a cup with a rest of coffee which I had had with a friend one afternoon standing in the kitchen(which I didn't visit at all during the following week because I was out and about most of the time) until it started to come alive with god-knows-what...

Need I mention we had another discussion?

OSRAM, headquartered in Munich, has lots of info on energy-saving light bulbs. I'll try to remember to post the links to their statistics. Really, everyone should be using these bulbs, they even have ones for small pets, special ones for plants so they grow better, and they're all fluorescent! Here's a PDF with a whole bunch of info on fluorescents and light colors and stuff...

http://www.osram.com/pdf/service_corner/white_light.pdf

No advice on the general roommate problems though.

Hey! Look after the little guy. Enough of Osram - you want these bulbs you can get them here:

http://www.androv-medical.de/

Some community huh