Switching to energy efficient lightbulbs

[metallicat]

Is it worth replacing all bulbs in the home with new, efficient bulbs, even if the current ones aren't burnt out yet? Do you really notice enough of a change on the energy bill to warrant the one time fee of the bulbs? Thoughts?

[ken0042]

I'm almost all CFLs now. I wait for sales like now where Home Depot has 8 of them for $10 and stock up. I then figure out what lights I use most, and which ones get accidentally left on the most.

I've actually started swapping out my old but not burnt out CFLs. The old ones would take 1-2 seconds to fire up, but the new ones give about 80% light instantly.

The one mistake I made was getting too many of the "Daylight" ones. The light is just too white- hard to explain but ironically it seems so un-natural.

And I do see it on my bill. A couple of bucks per month, but that pays for the 8 pack pretty quick.

Another cheap option is Dollar-rama. They have the 9 watt ones (like a 40 watt bulb) for $1 each. I have one of those on the front porch and leave it on almost all the time. Night light power usage with enough light to see to get your keys in.

[metallicat]

I guess I'll head to Home Depot and check that out tomorrow, I didn't realize you can get that that inexpensively. I assumed that they were pricy.

[Flame On]

Even if you were to forget the environmental or economic aspects, you have to love that you don't have to change your bulbs out so frequently. Like that dodgy chicken rotisserie, you just set it and forget it!

[jayocal]

Do these bulbs work with dimmer switches?

I'm guessing not??? :eh:

[Nancy]

Do these bulbs work with dimmer switches?

I'm guessing not??? :eh:

You can get dimmable CFL's but they are expensive and they don't work that great in terms of how much they actually dim. (Personal experience.) They are also selling led lights (which are dimmable) now in GU10 format, but they are super expensive and don't fit properly in most GU10 fixtures.

[You Need a Thneed]

You can get dimmable CFL's but they are expensive and they don't work that great in terms of how much they actually dim. (Personal experience.) They are also selling led lights (which are dimmable) now in GU10 format, but they are super expensive and don't fit properly in most GU10 fixtures.

Most LED lights aren't dimmable either, but yes, you can get them. LED lights save even more power than CFLs, last 5-10 times longer than CFLs, but so far, come with a hefty price. If you are doing life cycle costing, they will end up being much cheaper then any other bulbs.

LED lighting technology is advancing, in the last year or so, LED bulbs have started coming out that put out similar amounts of light to other types of bulbs.

My office at work is running only LED GU10 bulbs (that are the same size as regular GU10 bulbs) - the bulbs are $36 bucks each, but only use 3 watts of power instead of 50 (but not quite as bright - but bright enough), the power savings add up quickly when there are ten bulbs in my one office, so I'm running about 30 watts of consumption instead of 500 watts. Based on them being on 8 hours a day, that probobly saves $8-10 of power every month, and that's not to mention the power savings from not having to run the Air conditioner as much in the summer (as 500 watts of halogen bulbs in one room creates LOTS of heat) I've measured the temperature of the Halogen bulbs vs the LED bulbs with a laser thermometer, the Halogens measure at about 300 Celsius, whereas the LEDs are about 50C.

I found a good place out of Saskatoon that sells good LED bulbs, they gave us great service:

http://www.ledlights.ca/

[REDVAN]

I found a good place out of Saskatoon

LIES! Nothing good comes from Saskatoon.

haha just kidding, good advice, I am thinking about getting some new technology in my house, so lightbulbs might be a good place to start!

[Rathji]

I'm almost all CFLs now. I wait for sales like now where Home Depot has 8 of them for $10 and stock up. I then figure out what lights I use most, and which ones get accidentally left on the most.

I've actually started swapping out my old but not burnt out CFLs. The old ones would take 1-2 seconds to fire up, but the new ones give about 80% light instantly.

The one mistake I made was getting too many of the "Daylight" ones. The light is just too white- hard to explain but ironically it seems so un-natural.

And I do see it on my bill. A couple of bucks per month, but that pays for the 8 pack pretty quick.

Another cheap option is Dollar-rama. They have the 9 watt ones (like a 40 watt bulb) for $1 each. I have one of those on the front porch and leave it on almost all the time. Night light power usage with enough light to see to get your keys in.

I love the daylight ones. It was weird at first but now I love how much more light they seem to give off than my upstairs lights.

I saw them on sale for pretty much a buck a bulb at Home Depot so bought enough for my entire house. My plan was to replace them as the old ones burnt out, but as Ken mentioned the Daylight ones are really different, so mixing them produced odd results. As it stands now, I replace an entire room when one goes out.

[ken0042]

but as Ken mentioned the Daylight ones are really different, so mixing them produced odd results. As it stands now, I replace an entire room when one goes out.

I guess it's differnet styles to suit different tastes. What I have found is that by mixing the daylight bulbs with the warm white ones, I get enough different light to create a good sensation.

So, OF it appears you have have to experiment a little bit to see what suits your tastes. But the bottom line is modern CFLs have very few of the earlier drawbacks to them, and you will save a bit of electricity every month to justify the cost.

The one thing to add to watch out for- specialty CFLs are still expensive. Like CFL flood lights, or vanity lights. I actually went and replaced the fixture outside my garage to better accomodate a CFL bulb, so instead of two 75 watt flood lights there I have one 13 watt CFL. Sure, not as much light, but enough that I can justify keeping it on longer.

[fredr123]

We've been swapping ours out as the old ones die. We have a few enclosed in light fixtures like this one:
http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/HomeDepotCanada/images/catalog/d6eeb14f-f5b0-401f-8757-d9b883a9240a_3.jpg
Aside from trying to find bulbs that fit within the fixture, are there any other concerns with respect to putting CFLs in something like this? I'm assuming not since they probably give off less heat than regular incandescent bulbs.

We have one of those fixtures in our stairwell between the main and upper floors. It's gotta be a good 25+ feet off the ground above stairs. One of the two bulbs is burned out already. I don't want to have to buy a giant ladder just to change a couple light bulbs but its looking like that might be necessary soon.

[ken0042]

Aside from trying to find bulbs that fit within the fixture, are there any other concerns with respect to putting CFLs in something like this? I'm assuming not since they probably give off less heat than regular incandescent bulbs.

Most of the fixtures in my house are those types of "boob lights" and I have been running CFLs in them for years. No issues with size, the "standard" size for CFLs is the same as incandescents. And they give off a little less heat, but are still usually to hot to swap out when they have been on for a while.

You can rent a ladder at Home Depot. IIRC they have deals for rentals for Tuesday evenings too- seeing as you will only need the ladder for a few minutes.

[schnee]

We've been swapping ours out as the old ones die. We have a few enclosed in light fixtures like this one:
http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/HomeDepotCanada/images/catalog/d6eeb14f-f5b0-401f-8757-d9b883a9240a_3.jpg
Aside from trying to find bulbs that fit within the fixture, are there any other concerns with respect to putting CFLs in something like this? I'm assuming not since they probably give off less heat than regular incandescent bulbs.

We have one of those fixtures in our stairwell between the main and upper floors. It's gotta be a good 25+ feet off the ground above stairs. One of the two bulbs is burned out already. I don't want to have to buy a giant ladder just to change a couple light bulbs but its looking like that might be necessary soon.

I don't know if I had a bad batch??? but some CFLs I had in light enclosures like yours seemed to run quite hot (noticed this after the fact).... and within a few months started burning out, or would start flickering and making humming noises. One actually melted(?), there was some dried yellow "stuff" that had oozed from the coil base..

These were the "Globe" brand... I tossed them all and tried the Phillips ones.. they still seem to run a little warm.. but not hot... not as worried about a fire starting with these ones. They have been going well for a year now..

I'd just check how warm the fixture gets after running a CFL in it for a couple of hours. If it doesn't feel any warmer than what a regular bulb would feel... should be ok.

[FlamesKickAss]

all of our lights are that style and we are doing the switch. I got 10 bulbs for 9.99 at walmart because of an error. seems to work just fine in those.

[Sample00]

where's Cheese when ya need him. He has some great views on the new bulbs. someone should ask him. It really opened my eyes.

[prarieboy]

I've just changed out 90% of the lights in our house with CFL's. I read that about 10% of a households power will be consumed by lighting so I hope to save about $5 a month.

For those that want more info there is a really good page on CFL's on Wikipedia.

[GGG]

mmmmmm Delicious mercury, Remeber to recycle and avoid breaking the bulbs. The CFL's are a potential landfill disasater. So if you are going to do the first step of putting them in make sure you take them back to home depot to dispose of them.

[Nancy]

mmmmmm Delicious mercury, Remeber to recycle and avoid breaking the bulbs. The CFL's are a potential landfill disasater. So if you are going to do the first step of putting them in make sure you take them back to home depot to dispose of them.

I'm still waiting for the CFL recycling bin at either Home Depot or Ikea to be declared a hazardous waste zone due to the number of broken bulbs.