I have about twelve 13 to 18 watt CFL Bulbs new in box. For awhile, my small electrical utility sold things like water heaters, light bulbs at give away prices. Buy one box of bulbs and get three boxes free. Beat the local Walmarts Anyway, they no longer sell things -- except electrical power -- and I have these "free bulbs." Was replacing one today and wondered if it was false economy to keep using the CFLs. They are new, decent quality and work as well as any of the CFLs do. A web search was inconclusive. With some saying replace, others say use them up and one source said if you only leave lights on for a shortwhile, it was more economical to toss all my new and used CFLs and replace with LED. On the other hand, leave lights on for long periods, use up the CFLs. Any thoughts? Yeah, sort of a so what question, but curiosity.... And, I must be old if this is how I spend Saturday night. But Spent a goodly part of the day playing frogger.
If you got them at firesale prices, tossing or keeping until spent is a wash (for you if not the environment). If you paid retail then I'd be behooved to use them, continuous-on or not.
LEDs can have very good spectral quality now. Make everything look better. And a place like a Habitat Re*Store might accept the CFLs.
What I hate about LEDs is that they can, without any indication, spew out lots of RF noise. I suppose that CFLs could do the same. But when I turn on the radio and hear a bunch of buzzing static, and going over and turning off a lightbulb fixes the issue, I have to wonder if technology i really advancing or just making things worse. It's especially an issue when you have to wait for the neighbor to turn off his lights for you to get on the radio. At any rate, buying name brand LEDs, like Phillips or General Electric seems to help solve the problem. Now, doing the math: It looks like the 60W incandescent, 15W CFL and 8W LED all put out the same light, so we'll use those numbers. I got a 4-pack of Phillips 60W A19 bulbs for $14, or about $3.50 each. Assuming electricity prices of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour, then for the first 6,000 hours your CFLs would be cheaper. But after that, the LEDs would be cheaper even though you had to buy them. To get 6,000 hours out of a lightbulb, that's one year at 16 hours a night, or two years at 8 hours a night, or 4 years at 4 hours a night, or 8 years if you average having your lights on for only 2 hours a night. So it would seem to me that, unless your electricity is very expensive, or you're just trying to save every last kWh that you can, then use the CFLs for a couple years, or until they burn out, and then switch over to the LEDs. It's kind of a wash in the end, but by not buying bulbs right now means you save money if you had to move in the next couple of years. It also means that when you do get your LEDs, they'll be a couple years newer, so again, there's more of a chance they'll outlast you living there. Now, if you're paying 22 cents, then don't use the CFLs for more than a year. And if you're paying substantially more for electricity, then get the LEDs ASAP.
