Seeing the light in US homes

Factual Questions
21

May I suggest a compromise between the bat and moth camps? Replace your regular incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, and eschew ugly overhead lighting and halogen floor lamps with multiple low-wattage task, area, and decorative lighting sources. Be imaginative and don’t be afraid to break a few rules – with a little resourcefulness and imagination, you can have interesting, varied, and attractive lighting for relatively little electricity.

I like to keep my apartment well-lit (especially in the winter), and my electricty bill during those months averages around $25-30/month. (Caveat: my hot water, stove/oven, and heating are all on gas, and I don’t have laundry facilities, so YMMV.) Nevertheless, the lighting is the first thing that almost everyone who sees my place comments on.

22

When we visited my wife’s homeland (Brazil) in 2001, they had had severe droughts and their hydroelectric energy production was quite low. They didn’t bother with namby-pamby requests for conservation – they came out with hard-core rationing.
The power company looked at each home’s usage from the same month’s bill a year before, and then mandated that each person would use X percent less, a substantial amount. There were fines and so forth associated with exceeding the limits. The visible result of this was that every home I visited had those fluorescent bulbs everywhere, making them all appear very cold and bleak. Too much fluorescent lighting is depressing. On top of that, our mid-August trip meant that we were in the middle of their winter, with the sun setting at 5pm each day, plunging us into the world of fluorescent light.

23

I guess it’s part of a bigger lesson. We were taught to conserve where we could because each little bit eventually adds up. Whether conserving little bits of energy, money or food, parents are trying to teach their children to not become wasteful.

24

Only when the film crew is over :smiley:

For some strange reason, audiences prefer to actually be able to see the actors, so dim lighting would be counter-intuitive to accomplishing that as a goal.

25

Interesting you should ask. I call my wife ‘The Comet’ because she goes through the house leaving a trail of light behind her. I get most of my exercise turning off lights and I’m in such good shape I wouldn’t be afraid to tackle my weight in wildcats.

26

I have to go with Fish on the energy-wasting issue. Using up energy just because you can afford to is not a good idea. And, as the SUV owners who are out there trying to buy up hybrid vehicles right know know, affordability is always subject to change.

That being said, I will admit that I sometimes leave on more lights than I absolutely need because I live alone and get depressed. However, since my house is less than 400 square feet, that means one extra lightbulb in total, not one (or more) extra lightbulb per room.

Regarding the OP, I wonder if Marky33’s query means that movies made in Hong Kong do not feature houses flooded with light. I assume so, or it wouldn’t have occurred to Marky33 to ask the question in the first place. How about it, Marky? How is the lightswitch issue handled in movies made in Hong Kong? Do they show a lot of light switches being turned on and off as people move from room to room? Now I’m curious.

27

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Whoops. Make that 800 square feet.

28

I’m perplexed by your apparent belief that background details in a film are a more accurate reflection of real life than it’s main stylistic device, whatever that means. So in other words there may not be a galaxy far, far away that was occupied a long time ago by human beings indistinguishable from us, but if there was the people there definitely fought duels with light sabers and spoke Modern English while doing so?

Movies are artistic creations. Directors, screenwriters, and cinematographers *et. al. * may or may not be interested in portraying realistic details in their product but they are definitely interested in using the tools of their craft (like lighting) to get the audience to have a particular desired reaction, whether it is laughter, fear, excitement or buying tickets to the sequel. I submit that the pursuit of realism is almost always secondary to this.
I also humbly suggest that if the occasional smart answer disturbs you you may want to find another board to post on.

29

Lighting may add up over time, but the real cost item is air conditioning. My monthly energy consumption is 3 times higher in July than in May, and the reason why is no great mystery.

A relatively small reduction in the “deep freeze” level that many keep their air conditioning at over the Summer will do much towards reducing overall energy consumption.

Worse still are those with resistance-electric heaters in the Winter. Here again, just dressing warmer inside and moving the thermostat a few degrees colder will do a world of good.

30

I humbly suggest you shut the hell up. Someone asks a factual question on general questions, asks folks to answer it factually after getting condescended to, and you think he needs to be elsewhere?

Now, let’s pretend we’re in general questions for a moment.

First, the question -

The OP asks whether people, in America, return home to their house, methodically go from room to room turning on the lights.

It does not ask whether Americans turn on any lights, just all of them. It does not ask about lightsabers or other fantasy. Nothing in there about kung-fu keystone kops, and nothing about the nature of art.

First. The background details of many films do, in fact, depict common life. At least, realistic movies do (This is the technical movie-type term realistic, not what you’re thinking. It’s the opposite of formalistic.). For example, drivers stop their cars at red lights unless it’s important to the plot. The sun shines, married couples wear wedding rings, telephones ring when someone’s calling. You know, background details.

Now, most Hollywood-type movies we are stylized realistic, kind of a ‘middle ground’. In such movies, setting is kept subordinate to the story so it’s nice and tame - that’s why you can park right in front of a busy cafe in Manhattan in mid-afternoon. However, the stylization is kept to a minimum, to give us a chance to enter a state of suspension of disbelief.

So, I think we can all agree the question is legit. Oh, Cite: Louis Giannetti, Understanding_Movies, Seventh Edition. Page two - this isn’t that complex a concept.

The hard part about answering the question is that lots of people lie, or make stuff up. But slogging through eight thousand websites can be interesting. For example, did you know that leaving the upstairs lights on, especially in office buildings, increases the bird mortality rate?

Hmm, a Honeywell survey reveals that 61% of Americans turn the lights off when they go to travel. 48% turn 'em on before leaving. I guess 9% of us do both.

Well, according to http://www.neetf.org/roper/2000%20Summary.htm, 85 percent of Americans say they turn off the lights and appliances when not in use.

Okay, we all know the answer is no, Americans generally don’t go around through a house turning on all the lights, although it might happen organically as wastrels move through the various rooms. The fact that most Americans claim to turn out the lights when not using them would imply this, but I can’t prove it.

Your guess that it’s filmmaker shorthand for “people get home” is probably right on the money, yeah.

By the way, here’s the USDOE on how to make your home lighting more efficient: http://www.eere.energy.gov/erec/factsheets/eelight.html . To you ‘keep the lights on’ folks, I’ll just reply, ‘thirty-seven billion dollars a year’.

31

The factual question has been answered, so I’ll close this thread. Those wishing to ponder insufficient illumination, debate excessive energy consumption, discuss odd cinematographic devices, or request the hell taciturnity, are hereby directed to our other fine forums.

bibliophage
moderator GQ