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CFL's and you : A story of savings
RoundBoy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I would love to replace all the lights in my house with nice CFL bulbs , but aside from the obvious locations.. i am at a loss.
My laundry room, and back hallway all have simple on/off lights, so they were an easy replace.. but every other location either has dimable lights or lights where I can't abide a 'warm up' period.
This gives me a place to buy dimable lights, as well as the 'fancy' bulbs for the bathroom, etc.. but is there any brand or special notation i should look for to minimize the warm up ?
I already compare the lumens of my current lights to my potential replacements, so my light level remains the same, but what brands are the ones to avoid or to get exclusively ?
Has anyone attempted a full house conversion ?
My laundry room, and back hallway all have simple on/off lights, so they were an easy replace.. but every other location either has dimable lights or lights where I can't abide a 'warm up' period.
This gives me a place to buy dimable lights, as well as the 'fancy' bulbs for the bathroom, etc.. but is there any brand or special notation i should look for to minimize the warm up ?
I already compare the lumens of my current lights to my potential replacements, so my light level remains the same, but what brands are the ones to avoid or to get exclusively ?
Has anyone attempted a full house conversion ?
Librarians harbor a terrible secret. Find it.
RoundBoy on
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I started replacing bulbs to CFL in our house in 2006, but only replacing incandescents as they burn out. I figured (correctly) that CFL lighting quality is still improving, and there's no sense in buying $100 worth of CFL bulbs immediately if newer and better ones keep coming out. I mean they last seven years, that's a long time.
If you're going to replace them gradually, try starting with the ones you leave on the most, to maximize the benefit. We used to keep a 45W light on over the stove 24/7, for instance. I stopped doing that, now we use a few LED night lights around the house instead, which are like 0.85W each. I thought it would be great replacing our front step light to CFL but they are dimmer in the cold, so the lighting isn't too impressive in the winter. Still, anywhere you have a light on constantly, you should go to CFL. Shit saves you something like $35/year in energy per 60W bulb on a 24/7 duty cycle, assuming $0.09/kWh.
Those are on long enough during a day to be close to 24/7 operation it seems.
The can type lights i replaced in my back hallway come on instantly, but they seem to only be @ 75% brightness for a min or two until the light is warmed up? I would like to eliminate this otherwise its not a viable replacement.
The living room, and the main bathroom are my prime two canidates. The kitchen and hallway lights go next. I intend to replace some of the small stylized lights in stairways with LED lights .. but that is up for grabs.
What brand have you been using ?
Librarians harbor a terrible secret. Find it.
Like, if you use a 100-watt replacement bulb for a 75 watt light, that should give you the brightness you're looking for, and still be a huge power savings.
I'm seeing CFL bulbs on that site with air purifiers... anyone know anything about that, like whether they are worth the extra money? I was thinking it might be helpful for the bathrooms (especially the one where the litter box is), the munchkin's room (diaper pail), etc.
IMO the air purifying thing is a gimmick. The bulbs that do that are also a LOT more expensive, at least where I shop.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
Link to the GE bulbs ?
Thanatos : That is usually what I do.. i don't shop by current wattage, but by expected lumens output. I just can't remember if I have a 65 or 75 in there now. Doesn't really matter I guess.. since i rarely put the lights on about 50-60% unless I am cleaning or something
Librarians harbor a terrible secret. Find it.
This has been my experience too, using CFL bulbs from Philips (the Philips Marathon) and GE (T3 Soft Light). They are on instantly and there is no flicker, but the brightness is as you said...something less than 100% for about a minute.
I have small bathrooms in my house but they have those multi-lamp sink light fixtures in them. If you spend too long in front of them you'll sweat from the heat of all the bulbs. When I swapped those out with CFL the bathroom cooled down a lot, it was sort of an unintended benefit.
I haven't been very satisfied with LED lights so far. I bought them for nightlights but for whatever reason their light goes everywhere diffusely instead of on the floor where I need it. Your mileage may vary.
I can't find a quick link to the GE CFLs. I got mine at Fred Meyer. Their packaging is coloured differently than the normal models, so they're easy to spot at places that carry them. That Fred Meyer has been sold out of the 26-watt (100-watt incandescent equivalent) since I bought mine a few months ago, so apparently I'm not the only one that likes them.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/