How much does it cost to leave the lights on?

[LifeIsGoodish]

We were raised in the era of incandescent bulbs, when you could see the meter ticking over when lights were left on. But now, with low-energy bulbs, are we making an unnecessary fuss about switching off lights? And anyway, don't some bulbs work better if left on all the time?

Second question - no.

First question - old type bulbs could use 100w, 60w , 40w. The new ones have usages such as 7 w. So it is a lot less - but waste is still waste .

I'd rather leave some lights on than get burgled so we aren't too fussy about switching them off when we go out.
In the house, I switch them off if I get to it, but will leave the kitchen lights on all evening, for example, as we're in and out.
I think things like our oven are so much worse that I don't worry too much about lights.
Apparently it's about 1p a day per bulb to have it on 24hrs for the electricity tarif we're on.

Don't repeated switchings on and off shorten a bulb's life?