Turning off and on and off and on both CFL Bulbs and LED bulbs reduces the total bulb lifetime. Turning on a CFL bulb is worth just five seconds of cfl run time. However both the CFL and LED bulbs use a ballast which becomes less and less efficient as it is used. So you will use more electricity leaving on the lights but you will burn out those rather expensive bulbs the more you turn them on and off. I bought an LED TV the other day. Affixed to the screen edge was a tag that says this TV will use only $6.00 in one year of normal use.
I bought an electric 40 gal water heater that says it will use $539.00 a year in regular use. Guess which one went on a timer?
Oh and I am all for the LED bulbs. Those Mercury toting CFL twisty bulbs everyone uses are terrible for the environment. Never has so much Mercury been put out there for us to consume and generally throw around as there is today. Bad! If your going to go the energy saving route, go LED. It may cost more, but the CFL's cost our environment so much more.
