Ironduke

Do you use CFL (compact fluorescent lamps) light bulbs? I do, and have persuaded a few other people to get rid of their incandescents and install them as well.

They use about 25% of the electricity of an incandescent with equivalent light output and have and typically have a life of about 8 years. They pay for themselves in electricity savings in about 4 or 5 months.

Since electric lighting comprises about 20% of an average home's electric bill, installing them will save you 15% on your electric bill. If you live in a warmer climate and use a lot of air conditioning, one could save 25% or more on their electric bill by installing CFL light bulbs.

Prices have come down as well, one can purchase six 100W equivalent CFLs at Wal-Mart for just $15.00. They are made in every wattage one could need, and dimmable varieties are available as well. Improvements in technology and design since their introductions has made them so they come on instantly and they provide the same quality of lighting, in contrast to the lower quality and dimness they had in the past.

As you can probably tell, I'm a big fan, and I'd encourage you to go out and replace your incandescents with CFL bulbs.

If you use CFLs (or LEDs) for most of your lighting, vote yes. Of course you vote yes after your purchase them and install them too.

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The Buck Stops Here

hazym

I was going to use CFL's until I found that they contain significant quantities of mercury. How long will it be before the usual suspects are telling us what an environmental disaster these new globes are?

Ironduke

A few arguments were made against CFL light bulbs in a previous thread, including:

• 1) They're not dimmable.
  - GE among others make dimmable CFLs in every wattage regular CFLs come in. In comparison to incandescent bulbs which can dim to 0%, dimmable CFLs can dim to 20%. They are a little pricier than the regular CFLs. They can be use in any dimmer socket.
  Ace Hardware - Dimmable CFL
  List of dimmable CFLs
  
  
• 2) They contain mercury.
  - While the average amount of mercury in a CFL bulb was 5mg, Philips has cut the mercury content to below 3mg, and bulbs will use progressively less mercury as time goes on. If a CFL breaks in a room in your house, it is estimated with ventilation to the outside, the relatively low mercury levels in the air will be below the safety limit set by the federal government within an hour.
  
  
• 3) They don't provide the same quality of light of an incandescent.
  - Modern CFLs match or exceed the light quality emitted by an incandescent. Light quality issues are a thing of the past.
  
  
• 4) They don't light up as quickly as an incandescent.
  - Modern CFLs light up instantly fairly bright, and light up to full brightness within 30 seconds.
  
  
• 5) They buzz.
  - CFLs on the market now produce no or a virtually inaudible amount of buzzing.

Ironduke

Here is a link to a Snopes article debunking the mercury danger of CFLs:

Urban Legends Reference Pages: CFL Mercury

No indications that the mercury content of a CFL is hazardous. Sweep it, put a damp paper towel over where it broke, and open a window to ventilate the room. EnergyStar claims the broken glass shards are more dangerous than possible mercury contamination.

Wendigo

I'd rather use LEDs than CFL:s but those still have weak and rather cold light compared to almost any other light source. We've tried to replace all our lights with energy saving variants. The thing though is that when you're heating your house with electricity (and wood but we still use some 8000 kWh each year for heating) it really doesn't make that much difference, especially in winter.

zraver

I use em, they are well worth it to me.

IflareR

you really should consider geothermal heat pump. in ideal condition the system can be 12:1 effective(one watt of electricity produces 12watts of heat). its a big investment(depends how big your house is ofc but upwards from 8000€ here in Finland, depends if you use drill hole or surface loop, how long the loop is etc) but if you are using direct electric now it pays itself quite quickly. word of warning; dont go cheap and try to extract too much heat from too little land area(use too short loop) or you might cause your yard to go PERMAFROST


or if there is district heating in your area?(that is the most hassle free system. our house and our hot water is heated by waste heat from natural gas power station) wood pellet systems available? anything but direct electricity or oil!!!

jonnm

Generally I have been replacing with cfl as bulbs burn out. The bulbs themselves have a certain amount of energy cost if you simply replace good ones. I have found that there are places were this is impossible such as with some fixture designs or were the socket is small. I also have found that the lifespan of the cfl has been less than advertised.

Regarding geothermal, one of my clients is in the business. Generally you get about a fifty percent reduction in energy consumption for heat and AC at least in the area I live in Southern Ontario. After you get through the overburden about 50 to 100 feet around here you can support about 1500 square feet of living space for every 100 ft you go down either in separate holes or deeper holes. The circulating pump is attached to a heat pump.
Regards

glyn

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Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.

Debbie

I plan on using the dimmable ones when the price comes down a bit since the former owner was a huge fan of in ceiling lighting with dimmer switches. I might not save much perhaps but I do think it is worth it.

Far as geothermal is concerned, picking up from other posts - if one can, go for it. Things have changed so much now with the way it is installed and the overall pipes used, etc., that it really is the way to go. I had hoped to use wind power actually where I am, but I think geo-thermal would really be the way to go and I've got the space. I figure in the next 5 years I should have a system.

__________________
You know I'm here for the party
and I aint leavin 'til they throw me out
Here for the Party - Gretchen Wilson

Ctom3

While I have no basic argument with most of the statements. They pretty absolute and mostly unqualified.

While this is not a deal killer, I would argue with the statement that modern CFL's match or exceed incandescent light quality. It is getting close, but it is not there. Incandescent color is still the gold standard for measuring color accuracy. In fact, the measurement (Color Rendering Index) is based upon incandescent. The latest C.F.'s have a CRI in the low 80's as opposed to 100 for incandescent. This is very acceptable, but by no means does it meet or exceed incandescent light quality. Much of the improvement comes from the reduction of mercury in the lamp. Less mercury means less of the green spike that is characteristically a part of the color distribution of fluorescent lamps. Mercury has always been a critical part of the proper and efficient operation of the lamp. I am amazed at the amount that they have been able to remove and I would be equally amazed if they can remove all of it, but who knows?

Regarding strike and warm-up time, I recently bought a package of G.E. retrofit CFL's that have the A19 envelope. This is the outer bulb that looks similar to a frosted incandescent lamp. The lamps start instantly, but they have very low initial output that rises very slowly. It takes at least a minute for them to come up to anything approaching full output. This too slow for use in interior room lighting.

I also would not consider buying anything except lamps from the "big three"; G.E., Osram Sylvania and Philips. There are a lot of other lesser brands that are marked with all of the appropriate energy efficiency marks that also have terrible long term lumen maintenance. In other words, their light output drops significantly over their lives so that lamp efficiency drops significantly and light quality is heavily compromised. The reason for this is profit based. This is now an extremely high unit volume business where unit production cost savings of 1/100 of a penny, or even less, provides big returns. This is realized through the use of lower quality phosphors and components, and also looser quality control and lower quality production methods.

handball

I BOUGHT ONE AND IT LASTED THREE MONTHS BEFORE IT GAVE OUT.IT WAS MADE IN CHINA.ARE THEY ALL MADE IN CHINA ?

omon

where do you get the info???? it is wrong.
cfl with 6000k and up, have much better color rendering abuility, than incandesants, aquariums, and paint booth, use daylight fluresent bulbs.
but most cfl, are cool white, 3500k.
verilux, is the manufacturer(one of many) of full sprctrum flurecents.

incandesents, aren,t that good, when it comes to color, that is why ge introduced specially coated incd. to have higher kelvin rating, they are called Reveal.

also not all incandesents are the same, there are regular, incd, there are halogen, these two emmit very different light,

there is a bulb for every purpose, general lightning, use cool white, 3500k, for light close to natural , use daytime, aka full spectrum lights. 6000k+

do i use cfl? no, none of my light fixture uses them, all use halogen.(but i do plan on swaping them with leds, my gu10's burn out too often.

__________________
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Carnage_59

...an amateur radio operator who frequently operates on high frequency (3-30 MHz), I won't use CFLs because of the tremendous electromagnetic interference they cause. I also turn off all dimmer switches in my house also.

I have subsituted LED based lamps for incandescents in some cases. They don't provide that much light, however, power consumption is very low and as long as the internal supply is not a switching power supply, no EMI (electromagnetic interference) is generated.

My wealthy neighbors over 100 yards away from my house use high pressure mercury lamps for "security" around their house ... UGH. I watch the noise floor on my receivers go up by at least 20 dB when those lights go on because of the ballasts in the lamps.

Woodsy the Lar

I must admit I find it a bit Strange that Americans are now getting all green,I say this not as an Insult but as your Goverment soley Refused the Kyoto agreement on Carbon Discharge Levels. In Bali they Once again Refused to Agree on Carbon Discharges Levels, However the State of California already has reached the Said Levels.

Confused You bet I am!!!!

Pleased also that Green Issues are being presented on this Forum.