I began using CFLs in 1993 in my living room and bedroom lamps (bulky things with straight bulbs) and replaced nearly all of my remaining incandescents around 1999 with squiggly CFL bulbs (mostly ceiling fixtures or globes)-- all except small appliance bulbs in the microwave, oven, and refrigerator. My monthly power bills are less now than they were in the early '90s, despite inflation in power prices. The circa 1993 bulbs lasted ~ 5 years apiece, and just this weekend had my first squiggly burn out after 11 years of use.
I was under the impression that specialty incandescent bulbs will still be available in the future, so I imagine something will still be available for future iterations of the EasyBake oven.
Can you give an idea of the savings? I know there are a jillion other variables, but with a house with between twenty and thirty bulbs, what kind of effect would it have? An extra pizza a year? A new bicycle for the fish?
ETA: Wow, it looks like we’re talking new bicycle. Googling “CFL calculator” brings up a lot of hits. Here’s one that is pretty impressive and easy: GE Lighting
I put up several strings of them in my classroom because I detest fluorescent lighting, students love em, parents love em, my eyes love em, and in over a year only one has burned out (a single bulb, not a whole string)
my uncle has been replacing his tube lights in his workshop with them, they are both tougher, cheaper to run, and last for EVER, that and you dont even notice the difference without being told.
My buddy replaced every one in his new house. 170 fixtures (He has a huge house and property with outbuildings). He showed me his spreadsheet, and at the bottom you can actually see KWH savings demonstrated.
Hope the calculator helps. I’ll give my anecdotal savings, but I doubt it’ll be too helpful. I’ve lived in two-bedroom apartments since 1992, and am a night-owl/3rd-shift worker, so when I’m at home, lights are blazing, often in multiple rooms. My monthly electricity average cost has dropped from $40 to $30 or so (by taking yearly cost / 12). When I did a complete switchover in summer of 1999, my costs fell by almost 50% to $20 a month; inflation has raised the monthly cost from $20 to $30 since then. I’m looking at ~$120 savings a year for an investment of about $50 in CFLs almost a decade ago. I figure I’ll spend at most $20 a year replacing CFLs (as noted, I replaced my first 1999-era bulb this year), so I’m looking at $100 in savings… or over three months’ worth of electricity payments.
It should be noted that other cost-efficiencies have been introduced in my usage since then, such as changing to LCD/LED monitors/TVs vs. CRTs in 1999. Electricity costs for home lighting and entertainment are practically negligible now, and the bulk of my usage comes from air conditioning, baking/cooking, and refrigeration.
I have a number of fixtures in ceiling fans or on rheostats (or both) that CFLs will not work in. The cost of replacing all of those fixtures will far outway the negligable cost saving I will see from having CFLs in them. I fully expect that the incandesent ‘ban’ will keep getting pushed back again and again until something even new and better replaces the CFL.
the incandescent bulb bans, ones i’ve read, will still allow low wattage bulbs. there are applications like appliance bulbs which don’t have a good substitute. i think there will be exceptions where there are no substitutes at the moment.
When I was in grad school I had an apartment with high ceilings, and was literally risking my neck each time I changed a light bulb. After doing this several times I decided I’d rather pay more for a longer-lasting bulb even though I knew I probably wouldn’t be living there for more than a year longer. And it’s not like they’re that expensive.
Every apartment I’ve ever lived in had a full set of light bulbs installed at the time I moved in, so once CFBs become the norm then most people will be moving into apartments that already have them. Someone who’s only in the same place for a couple of years may never have to change their bulbs at all.
Of course, you can save power by switching off lights and other devices you’re not using, as well. If everyone was as habitual as I am in this respect, the apparent savings of efficient lamps would be vanishingly small, and the savings in not supplying “standby” power to other appliances would make a much bigger difference.
Humans will do whatever they can to waste as much as possible so I’m all for energy conservation bills but this one, in particular, had a lot more to do with Philips and GE and Sylvania’s bottom line than it did with the green movement.
Well, the technology is still developing. So, you can get nice LED’s in whatever spectrum you prefer (blue white or yellow-white) and as bright as you need. It’s just that the smaller, less bright bulbs, which are priced about what CFLs USED to be, are of limited utility- they are 15- 25 Watt equiv.
Now you can get a 75 watt equiv., but it will cost like $25.
Five years ago, the 15-25 W equiv were about $25, so what you heard was old news.
I doubt that, or rather I think you were right about 5 years ago. In any case, you can use LEDs. In fact small base flame shaped 15W equiv LEDs (which are what most dudes put in their chandelier) are running pretty cheap in lots, right now. They now have CFLs which work with dimmer switches just fine.
The something new and better to replace the CFL is already here- LED. It’s just damn expensive now.
/Kramer If you can get a mail truck for the weekend, we can make a fortune running light bulbs!! \kramer
I have changed over most of my bulbs. The weight did completely disintegrate a set of early 80’s track lights, and one or two ceiling fixtures just don’t have enough space in them.
I’d gladly go with LED if they’d just put a bulb cover over them to disperse the light more evenly. Why don’t they do this?!?
I’d like to see a cite for that. Both my apartment in Kansas City and my apartment in Chicago are fully lit with CFLs. I use them exactly the same as incandescent bulbs, flipping them on when I enter the room, off when I exit. They come on instantly, I’m perfectly happy with the spectrum of the light (most incandescent light looks dingy to me now). Since they came out, I’ve only replaced one CFL bulb in my Chicago apartment, and that one was there before we moved in seven years ago.
Incandescent bulbs are so monstrously inefficient they are practically a crime.
Amazon has a 8 pack of CFLs for $6.85. Plus s&h of course.
They do:
Thats a 20W equiv, for $8.50, and “Westinghouse 3-watt G19 LED bulb features a patented polymer magnification and dispersion system. These LED lamps deliver smoother, more uniform light distribution, enabling them to be used in a wide variety of applications. The vivid color of the lamps are ideal for use in both indoor and outdoor applications, including signs, strand lights, lanterns, canopies, and pendants. Nanolux LED lamps are compact, water-resistant and shatterproof. They are the only LED lamps listed for use in wet locations. These lamps are guaranteed for 50,000 hour life at a minimum - the equivalent of over 50 conventional lamps. These LED lamps decrease high maintenance costs by reducing the number of times a lamp needs to be replaced. N…s. They are available in 1 and 3 watt versions and can replace 7 to 20 watt incandescent lamps. They use 88% less energy and save up to 19.00 per lamp annually (based on the national average of .10 per kWh).”
That’s just one example. They have bright LED bulbs with light dispersing covers, but the cost is really bad- say $40 per bulb.
A lot of older lamps have the type of shades that fit onto the bulb.
There’s a beautiful house down the street that has completely switched over to CFL. It use to look so nice at night with the warm glow from the windows. Now it looks like they’re either running a tanning bed business or growing pot.
Well, you can get CFLs’ that are shaped exactly like an old-fashioned lightbulb.
Incandescants come in various spectrums, and you can get CFLs to match. Actually, most people find the “natural spectrum” bulbs, which look slightly blue, to be better for reading, etc.
Every single objection to CFLs only applied five+ years ago. CFLs come on fast, can be used in just about any socket, come in a variety of spectrums, etc.
Now, I will admit that some of the older CFL bulb had problems, and today some of the cheap no-name bulbs sometimes don’t really have the long life ascribed to CFLs. But the objections are starting to wear a bit thin. Now the real objection is “get off my lawn!”.
