To switch off or to leave on? That is the question...

In light (pun intended) of the Ooooops! and Wow! stickers appearing around the district from our active SEE Squads, this question bares repeating from an earlier post...
Does turning fluorescent lights off use more energy than leaving them on?

A common misconception is that there is a boost of energy required to power up a bulb so you should leave lights on when leaving an area for a short amount of time.
It turns out, however, the power surge is so brief that its energy draw doesn't amount to much; the equivalent of a few seconds or so of normal operation, according to U.S. Department of Energy estimates. In other words, strictly from an energy saving standpoint, it's almost always beneficial to shut off fluorescents when leaving a room—the start-up energy is offset by the power saved in even the briefest outages.