Let's say I have a 60W bulb in a lamp in my bedroom. If I kept the lamp on for 2 hours straight but the next day, I switched it on and off 10 times in intervals of 5 minutes. Which scenario would use more energy?
Light Energy Watts Lamp – Does Turning a Lightbulb On and Off Repeatedly Use More Energy?
energylamplightwatts
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A joule (J) is a unit of energy. If you lift a one kilogram weight one meter, you have done 9.8 J of work, because the weight of a kilogram is 9.8 Newtons, and a force of one Newton over one meter is a Joule of work.
A Watt measures work intensity or power: how much energy is transferred per unit time. One Joule of work done in one second is a watt. If you lift one kilogram by one meter, and you do it in one second, you need 9.8W of power. A Watt is a Joule per second, J/s. If you want to do the same lift in half a second, you need 19.6W: twice the power.
A kilowatt-hour is a unit of energy again, like a Joule. We are taking Watts (energy per time) and multiplying them by time, so the time cancels out, leaving energy. A hour is 3600 seconds. So a kilowatt-hour is 1,000 J/s * 3,600 s = 3,600,000 J. If work is being done, or energy being transferred at a power of 1000W, and this is done for one hour, that is a kWh. Or 100W over 10 hours, et cetera. A 100W bulb lit for 10 hours consumes 1 kWh.
A food calorie (the big calorie, or the kcal) is 4200J. So a 1 kWh is 3,600,000J / 4,200J/kcal = 857 kcal. This is about the energy in two double cheeseburgers from McDonald's.
If you search on eg
diy edison chandelier led
you'll get many hits. Some may even be relevant.
The main challenge is getting some thing that looks like a filament.
Bulbs offered are in the 2W - 10W range so your load is well down on incandescent.
As far as can be seen from the photo here
the Shenzhen Rayleich Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd. will sell you bulbs in boxes of 100 that look quite good. Someone may sell them or similar in unspecified-on-your-profile country. What country are you in? 1000 Watt total house power usage sounds commendably low.
The following are all Asian wholesale, but give you some idea of what LED substitutes are available.
Also Alibaba - Bulbs specifically for Edison chandalier but appearance uncertain
And similar ... with candle-flame-ish bulb shape. Hover over picture for larger image.
And another with closeup bulb detail. What that looks like when lit I know not.
If low voltage LED then flexible 2 conductor "lamp cord" is fine. If bulbs are mains rate you need local advice.
Control of individual lamps - by Arduino or other means is simple. But that's a following stage.
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Best Answer
Leaving it on would use more energy, absolutely. Sometimes, people try to convince themselves that turning a light on and off uses more energy because there is some high inrush current, or some such thing.
Firstly, incandescent lights hardly have any inrush current, because they don't have any capacitors to charge, and they need not strike an arc in the bulb. The current is initially higher because the filament resistance is lower, but:
Secondly, if you take a fluorescent bulb, which may have capacitors, and thus may require some inrush current, it doesn't begin to make up for the cost of leaving the light on. Consider again how short the turn-on period is relative to the leaving-on period. Even if you consider the wear-and-tear on the bulb and the starter and the fixture, it's almost always more economical to turn the bulb off. I read a report by someone who bothered to do all the math, and they concluded that if you intend to leave the light off for more than about 60 seconds, it's more economical to do so.