Quote:
Originally Posted by Regorium
While this is true, the benefit of a light bulb heating your house isn't as great as you think it is either.
CFL's are far better in the long run all costs considered.
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I've been down the road on this argument on this site before.
They are cheaper to operate (because electricity costs about four times per Joule compared to gas) but if you are saying that heat from a light bulb isn't the same as heat from a furnace or if you are implying that the heat doesn't make its way into the room it is lighting, you are incorrect. With the exception of a tiny fraction of IR energy leaking out the windows, everything on the warm side of the wall heats the room - convection and conduction makes sure of that. CFLs are the correct choice for outdoor and warm weather applications, from a raw energy balance point of view.
The exact same thing goes for tanked vs. tankless hot water heaters, same for efficient vs inefficient refridgerators. They may be cheaper to operate but they don't save much energy on balance, except in the summer.