I have noticed that the person living in a household who pays the energy bills is the only one interested in turning off the lights when leaving a room. Given human nature, this is unlikely to change. That’s why I have two inventions to close the gap.
The first invention is the Whole House Light Switch. It’s located by the inner door to the garage. When you are heading toward the car with the rest of the family, and they have left on every light in every room in which they have entered in the past 24 hours, you just flip the one switch and all the lights in the house go dark. I suppose you could designate one light to be the exception, so it looks like you are home when you are away.
My other invention involves each family member wearing a ring with an RFID sensor, so the lights only stay on if at least one ring is in the room. As you enter the room, and pass near the sensor, the lights come on by themselves. The light switch would need three settings in this case: 1) On, 2) Off, and 3) Sensor. If you have house guests, they simply use the on/off part of the switch. When only the family is there, everything is on auto.
I considered an Allowance Meter, which decreases the kids’ allowances based on light use, but that would have unintended consequences.