The Meter
Does turning lights off actually save much money?
Turning a light off saves money only for the minutes that light would have stayed on, and only for the power that globe actually uses.
On the Australian Government lighting page, lighting is around 5% to 10% of the average household electricity budget. A second page on the same site, Quick wins, puts lighting at about 5% of household energy use. Those are different measures. Neither figure is your bill. Your bill depends on how many lights you have, which globes are in them, and how long they stay on.
A few LED globes, on for a short while, are a small piece of that. An old halogen or incandescent, left on for hours, is the one worth walking back for. The lighting page says LEDs use about 75% less energy than halogen globes. If the globe is already an LED, switching it off still stops the waste. It will not move the bill the way replacing a room of halogen downlights will.
The same page still says to turn lights off when you leave the room. That part stands. Use a lamp when you only need light on a book or a bench. Outdoor lights left on all night are a better target than a hallway LED you walk past.
A smart globe you switch off in an app can still sit in standby, so the app can reach it. The lighting page says to check that standby use before you buy, and to look for 0.5 watts or less.
This is about globes. To get a dollar figure, divide watts by 1,000 to convert them to kilowatts, then multiply by hours used and the usage rate per kilowatt-hour on your bill, for the lights you actually leave on. There is no single saving that fits every house.
Sources, read 29 Sep 2026:
https://www.energy.gov.au/households/lighting
https://www.energy.gov.au/households/quick-wins