I have NEVER heard of such a recommendation in my life. Assuming that a home’s electrical system was installed properly, inspected, and meets all electrical codes, it should require no ongoing maintenance whatsoever. Unless your home has been subjected to severe stresses (like an earthquake), none of the connections in the electrical panel are going to spontaneously loosen.

Furthermore, “maintenance” of an electrical panel won’t do anything to “reduce energy usage” or “prevent breakdowns”. A 100w light bulb will still draw 100 watts of power, no matter what you do to the electrical panel. If there’s a power outage in your home, 99.99% of the time the problem will be with the power company’s feeder system, and not have anything to do with your home’s internal wiring.

But then Mythbusters debunked it. They said it’s always better to turn them off.

Here is an article Scientific American did on the subject as well: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=turn-fluorescent-lights-off-when-you-leave-room

Here is a quote from it: “shut off fluorescents if you’re planning to leave a room for more than five minutes”

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