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How to use LED lighting in summer to save electricity
As the summer solstice approaches, it's time for another peak in electricity usage. If you're looking to enjoy a low-carbon and energy-saving summer, what can you do to slow down your electricity meter? The staff from different departments in the power company are here to answer your questions about LED lighting and energy consumption.
**Question 1: How much does it cost to run LED lights all night?**
Mr. Li lives in a small house, and his hallway connects to the bathroom. To make it easier to walk at night, he installed four meters of LED strip lights on the ceiling—each with 60 beads. He wants to keep them on all night, but his wife is against it, thinking that with so many LEDs, the electricity bill will go up significantly.
**The Power Supply Bureau’s Inspection and Maintenance Squad Leader responded:**
Most LED strips on the market use 5050 chip packages. Each LED bead typically operates between 3.2 and 3.4 volts and consumes around 0.18W to 0.2W. A one-meter LED strip with 60 beads usually uses between 9W and 12W. So, Mr. Li’s 4-meter LED strip would consume up to 48W per hour when running. That’s slightly more than a regular fluorescent lamp. If left on for 10 hours from 10 PM to 8 AM, it would use 0.48 kWh. At a rate of 0.288 yuan per kWh, this would cost approximately 0.14 yuan—very minimal.
**Question 2: Should I turn off the fluorescent light to save power?**
Miss Chen has a 40W fluorescent lamp in her hallway. Her old house isn’t well-lit, so she used to leave the lights on at night. After seeing her electricity bill in January, her mother-in-law suggested turning off the lights when leaving the room for just a few minutes.
However, she heard that fluorescent lamps use a lot of power when starting up, and frequent switching might not actually save energy. Is that true? And how much energy could be saved by turning them off?
**The Power Station Inspection Class Monitor from the Power Bureau replied:**
When a fluorescent lamp is turned on, there is a brief surge in current—about 5 to 7 times higher than during normal operation. However, this surge lasts only a fraction of a second, and the energy consumed during this short period is equivalent to just 1 millisecond of normal power usage. Therefore, it’s negligible.
In conclusion, even though fluorescent lamps aren’t major power consumers, turning them off when not needed is still more energy-efficient. A popular American science show, *MythBusters*, did a detailed test on this in Season 26, Episode 4. They found that unless you’re returning to the room within 1/3 of a second, turning off the lights saves energy.
Miss Chen’s 40W fluorescent lamp, along with an inductor ballast that uses 5–8W, consumes about 0.24 kWh per night if used for 5 hours. At a rate of 0.538 yuan per kWh, that’s roughly 0.13 yuan. Whether or not to turn off the lights depends on personal preference, but it’s definitely a small but meaningful step toward saving energy.
By making smart choices like using LED lighting and turning off lights when not needed, we can all contribute to a greener and more sustainable future.