Energy usage physics electricity question

Tumtitums

In my living room i have a chandelier style light bulb on the ceilijng. It has space for 3 candle shaped light bulbs. One bulb has blown so there are now only 2 working light bulbs. Does this mean that less energy is being used ? Someone said to me that the energy being used is still the same as if there were 3 bulbs installed so im a bit confused and just thought i would check

onomatopoeia99

Without getting into complexities like serial vs parallel wiring of loads and internal resistance of the supply, each bulb uses a specific amount of power, e.g. 60W for traditional incandescents. Three will use 180W in that example, two will use 120W, one will use 60W.

Tumtitums

ok thats what i thought its just someone said that switching on the unit means it will draw a fixed amount of energy regrdless of how many bulbs are in.

DoaM

Simple test ... is the light emitted less with 2 bulbs than with 3? If yes then less power is being used.

Bulbs have a fixed (more or less) power draw for the light they emit. Therefore, as above, 1 bulb will draw X Watts, 2 will draw 2X, 3 will draw 3X etc.

John_Gray

Perhaps your 'electro-technical' friend is thinking of christmas tree bulbs, which are wired in series?

Although the usual condition with these is that if one of the bulbs blows, then you get no light at all!

Ainsley1

" Perhaps your 'electro-technical' friend is thinking of christmas....", Maybe John /you are being kind!

or "not thinking at all!!" Could have been an appropriate comment!

Farway

I hope your electro-technical' friend does not think electricity is flowing out of their empty power sockets as well

paddyrg

Tumtitums wrote: »

ok thats what i thought its just someone said that switching on the unit means it will draw a fixed amount of energy regrdless of how many bulbs are in.

Don't worry, they were wrong. They're probably thinking of standby mode for TV's etc?