This weekend I bought a four pack of 13w (60w) CFL bulbs. I put them in the house and I am pleased with them so far except for the delay until they warm up. All the fixtures I put them in are rated for 60w max, but the previous owner had 100w bulbs in there, which I know is not good. However I was spoiled by the bright light. Since the CFL 100w is like only 23w would I be able to put those in and be safe? The only place I really mind it is in the kitchen where I only have one light and the 13w just isn't really cutting it when doing dishes and cooking. Im hoping to see some cost savings but who knows

 

I use CFL's any chance I get.

The wattage rating limits on lamps is usually for heat, since incandescent bulbs get really hot.

A "100 watt" equivalent CFL does not use 100 watts of power or even come close. It's just supposed to produce "100 watts" of incandescent light (or somewhere close). CFLs run a bit cooler than incandescent bulbs, so you're safe.

 

I hate CFL's with a passion. The avg consumer has no clue on how to dispose of them properly and the mercury risk in a home with young kids is not worth the trouble.

I really hope home LED lightbulb technology progresses faster.

 

I like them but I agree that they shouldn't be selling stuff to us that can't simply be tossed in the trash.

 

We slowly switched all of the bulbs in our stores to the CFL bulbs as the regular floodlights blew. Now, it's hard to say how long each piece of equipment was on each month so apples to apples is tough... but overall since the whole store was on CFL we did see a nice drop in our monthly electric bills...

 

We've switched most of our bulbs to CFLs and our so far energy savings has just about offset all of the rate increases.

 

I've been switching over for the last 2 years:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...&highlight=cfl

I've noticed that the more expensive bulbs (like GE) will warm up quicker than cheaper ones (Chinese - Lights of America, etc)...

I've got a couple of CFL floods in the back of the house, but still have incandescent floods up front since the CFL's don't fit in the housing. Light by the front door is one of those auto dimming ones, so it's still incandescent. Got a couple left in the garage (door opener) that I'll switch out eventually, but they are in the cold, so maybe not.

Oh, I like the "cool blue" type as opposed to the yellow light "regular" cfl give off

 

Another thing I've been doing is shutting off some equipment when they aren't in use.

Did you know that most computer power supplies use energy even when the computer is off... Quite a bit, too... My brother bought one of those watt meters to check stuff... So after I power down my desktop, I hit the switch on the power strip...

Same is true with the cable box. Consumes like 40w regardless if it's on or off... shutting that off at the surge protector is problematic, as you will lose the digital menu, but that will reload within 15 minutes or so. I just put the surge protector on 15 before I watch TV.

 

I switched in my house about a year ago and the thing I really notice is that I never have to change the minor use bulbs. The ones in main rooms, burn out quicker, but the front porch light for example has been in there forever without burning out. My other opinion in buy a quality brand like GE, they last longer and warm up quicker than the 99 cents.

 

The mercury threat from CFLs is over-stated. Unless you make a habit of breaking packs of CFLs daily for sport, you will probably get more exposure to mercury from a can of tuna.

I agree that in the aggregate, consumers are going to be stupid with CFL and throw them into the landfills, but it would take a lot of bulbs to equal the mercury contents of one CRT monitor. And I've seen those tossed out by the hundreds.

 

I put them in all the lights in my rental property, I am now convinced they are pointless, until LEDs are ready stick with what you got. CFL's are kind of like hybrid cars, they are just a change agent to get people used to something new, but are not a complete solution. As hybrid cars a teaching people to get used to electric motors and they're operation, CFL's are getting people used to different colors of light output and greater expense in replacement.

 

I use them all over. Some flicker, and this is annoying, as well as the fact that they aren't required to put color temp on the package...

FYI: Home Depot accepts burned out CFL bulbs.

 

I have started using CFL's in the fixtures we tend to leave on. Such as the lamp over the kitchen table, it is positioned where it lights almost the entire first floor, so it's nice to have on when coming home late. I was going through a bulb a month in that thing, because it traps the heat, it has 3 bulbs in it total. Since going to CFL's 6 months ago I haven't replaced a single one. That alone was worth the additional expense.

I also put a CFL flood over the front door for one reason, the fixture is bloody high and I hate changing the bulb. I wanted something up there that would last a long time. That was a mistake however, because the CFL takes about 5 minutes to get to full brightness on these cold Wisconsin nights. I may replace it with an incandescent in the spring time, who knows.

Overall I'm not all that impressed with CFLs, they don't fit in half my fixtures (unless I buy a low wattage bulb), the light is OK, but not like an incandescent and they tend to buzz. Yes, I'm buying GE brand too.

I hope that there is something better coming in the near future.

 

The quality of light given off by a CFL eats a giant dick. I have three of them in my master closet...I only opted for such because my darling wife loves to forget to turn the light off...a lot.

But Aside from shitty light quality...the warm up time is totally unacceptable. I might as well get in and out with a flashlight.

 

The 23w should work fine.

We have 4 or 5 CFL bulbs in place- they are best used where a couple minutes of warm-up time is of little concern. They seem to work pretty well otherwise-- no buzzing or flickering, either.
We haven't had to dispose of any yet, but save old batteries and other hazardous materials to take to the electronics & hazardous waste disposal site a few miles away.

The cost savings from the few CFLs would be unnoticeable due to the number of incandescent bulbs and halogens (most on dimmers) we have.

 

I hate them too. My dad gave me a couple once to convince me how great they are... I used them in the garage. They hardly lit up in the winter, and in the summer they provided very little light. Plus I can't stand the flicker.

I use the Philips Halogena's in most of my fixtures with the standard bulb bases. We'll see about LEDs when they come out.... but they will have to really work on diffusing the light and getting the right color for those to work.

 

I use a few of them. Give off a weird light so I've only put them in places where we generally go through a lot of bulbs (garage, etc).

 

The warmup time speeds up with use. Eventually it is near instantaneous.

I tried them when they first came out and they were horrible. Green skin after a few hours of sitting under them. It turned me off from them for a long time.

But the current ones are comparable to incandescents I think. They don't flicker, and I am one of those that gets a headache from monitors set below 85 Hz. If you haven't tried one of the current generation ones (2008 or so), I think its worth a shot.

Also, there is a difference in price/brand.

 

How much does that save you a year by turning off the surge for the cable box. I know you can't give an exact number, but can you estimate? Just curious.

 

Just started using them in our apt about a month ago. I don't mind at all; yes they do take a little to warm up/get brighter but big deal - I still have enough light to do whatever when they aren't warmed up. :0

 

No offense to greenie but some things just aren't worth it to me such as the cable box. Mine in particular takes 5 min to show basic stations and some times up to 30 min to program in all the digital and HD channels after power is lost.

On another note regarding turning off power strips. I have fixed several computers and two of them had bad power supplies. Both of those people regularly unplugged the power cord to the computer or switched off the power supply. Could be unrelated to the failures but its something to think about.

 

That was the basis of my question. Saving even $100/year isn't worth it to me by turning off the power strip every time I watch TV.

 

Don't use them, have no intention to. Aside from the issues with them, all of the fixed lighting in my house is decorative and retarded-looking bulbs wouldn't look good in them. The handful of lamps I have are halogen with dimmer switches...perfect amount of light at all times and I haven't changed a bulb in any of them in over ten years.

 

i don't have a problem w/ cfl's. I am probably slowly switching over, as other bulbs go out. For now, I just stuck them in the places i leave on a lot, like the living room lamp, porch light, bathroom.

I think i just bought a couple big packs from costco. The first one I accidently bought was the blueish color one, so I bought another regular color one. I think they are much cheaper at costco than anywhere else, although that might've changed in the last few years.

 

All of that; plus the CFL spot lights take forever to charge up (get bright) making them pointless in rooms where you wont be in there for the 3-5 minutes it takes to get up to full brightness.

And color temperature is HORRIBLE from these things. I did my kitchen up in the them and it looked like an alien autopsy room (glowing blue). I tried all of the color temps available then just went back to normal incandescent.

Pass until technology gets better...

This is like LCD TV technology... All hype no performance.

 

Install a door switch, I don't even have a light switch for our walk-in closet in the master. The lights come on when the door opens then go off when you close the door.

Door switch
http://www.pegasusassociates.com/DoorLightSwitch.html

Option B is a motion sensor... either IR or ultra sonic

Option C let the wife pay the electric bill

 

This isn't true for the flood light replacements... And none of the normal bulbs I have take less than 2 minutes to get to 85% of their full brightness then 3-5 minutes to fully warm up to their set color temperature.

 

I may be weird but I like the warm up time in the living room, bed room and my hallways Its nicer on my eyes to come in a night and turn on the lights in the living room and im hit with a soft light until they warm up and its easier on my eyes. Same goes for the bedroom and bathroom lights. Get up early in the morning when its dark and turn on the lights. Its not so bright you have to squint but its nice and allows your eyes to adjust as they get brighter. In fact the only room I don't like it in is the kitchen. When im cooking or cleaning up its not a big deal because the lights have time to warm up. However the kitchen is one room where I make many 30 second or so trips to get a drink or snack or something like that through the night and the light is then about useless.

 

Yeah those floodlight replacement ones suck. They produce zero light for at least a minute.

 

I'm avoiding them. Don't like'em. Using GE Reveal.

 

We've been slowly moving over to CFL. We have them in the living room, 4 in the ceiling fan kitchen light, the bedrooms, and our basement has 10 ceiling lamps with CFLs in them. If you buy the right color temperature they look just fine.

I even built a softbox for photography with CFLs. The pictures come out fine, no weird colors.

 

I only hit the power twice a day.. usually before I head into the shower, so the tv's menu system is ready when I get out, and when I goto bed... Not really that big of a deal...

Yeah, I probably only save about 10-15 bucks a month by "unplugging" things that use energy when it's off, but I like saving money where ever I can especially if it required minimal effort.

I used to have a electric bill off just over 100 a month, now, it's around 90 or so...

"A penny saved is a penny earned" - Ben Franklin

 

Bump.

Just got our first full months electricity bill in the new house - $180 - more than twice our highest bill in the condo. We had bought some CFLs to replace the incandecents in the house but only replaced a few previously. Last night I changed every light fixture I could over to CFLs. These newer bulbs are quit a bit more white than the incandecents.

Need to get some more and may even adjust some of the wattage down. Our kitchen alone has at least 5 flood lights and they are all on the same circuit with no dimmer. That room alone will go from 250 watts to under 100.

Also, disposal was mentioned before and I think most cities allow unbroken CFL bulbs to be placed in the recycle bin for pickup. Broken bulbs are still a problem as they are considered hazardous waste.

 

^^ One month...in the winter time...no A/C use and you are spending $180?!?!?!?

That's nuts....is your house 4k sq. ft. and you leave all the lights on all the time....and run an electric dryer round the clock?!?!

 

Yikes!

My last utility bill was $113 and that was with generous heat (central gas furnace) and Christmas lights (though they are the new LED type) on all night every day of December.

The highest utility bill I've ever had was $130, and that was at the hottest point of last summer with the A/C set to 78...and my GF wasn't working at the time so she'd hang out at the house most days so the A/C never really got a break.

 

No AC, 1300 sf house, gas heat. I'm going to verify the meter reading tonight. The thing that kills us is climbing all the way to tier 4. Never had that happen before.

Still, we did have company staying with us for at least two weeks with lights on nearly all the time. We do have an electric dryer and also have two refrigerators.

 

We'll need to also figure out if we're better off running the gas furnace to heat the whole house or run the electric space heater in the bedroom at night.

 

If the frig's are old...they will kill you on power consumption....so will the elec. dryer....consider running a gas line to the dryer.

CFL will help a bit, but appliances will kill ya.

Blower for your gas furnace (assuming it's gas) will consume about 750 watts.
Elec. Space heater consume 600-1440 watts (varies by size/model)

+/- 4,000 watts for elec clothes dryer...oof!

200-700 watts for refig.

 

Yeah, the CFLs will help a little bit, but they're not going to make a drastic difference in a $180 power bill. The highest I had this summer was $235. 2400sf home, 15 year old 4 ton ac unit in the middle of Florida. $180 in Socal wouldn't be unheard of, unless you had the a/c turned completely off all month. Then I'd start looking into it. If that's the case though, your summer bills are going to be murder.

 

AC was not turned on even once all month. The frig in the garage is older (at least 2002), but the one in the kitchen is a 2005 model, but I had the frig from the garage in the condo (plus a different second frig), so that shouldn't be the issue.

We do have several electronics (NAS, Ooma Hub, router, cable boxes, LCDs, etc), but those shouldn't draw much power when not under load.

I'm sure the dryer is a big factor, as we didn't have laundry in the condo. While I'd love to run gas to the dryer, it isn't going to happen any time soon. The dryer is brand new and in the garage. We'd have to replace concrete to run the gas line. I'm going to watch how fast the meter moves while the dryer is running.

I just get the feeling that when I check the meter tonight, I will find that some numbers got transposed. This just doesn't seem possible.