Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs): Who Uses 'Em?

How about "haven't tried them yet but plan to"?

 

How about, just about every bulb in my house (except 3) are CFLs... I probably have close to 20 or so CFLs.

 

I honestly don't remember when I started using them.

I guess I started when Home Depot started to carry them. I still have some of the first ones I bought. One in the garage has a really big ballast and a really long, looped florescent. I suppose they could be dated by their design. I have one in the attic that is like Saturn, a circle bulb around the central ballast. I have them everywhere. One exception is the bedside lamp; I find it difficult to read with them before I go to bed. I have one CF and one incandescent in the bathroom light as I put on makeup there and find the mix is better than pure CF.

I have some rewired vintage lights in my old house and really like the ones that are a bowl hanging from the ceiling. The nice thing about these is I can use CF and you can't see them.

I do have a few halogen lights in the house but don't use them much. They're for "company" and I don't get visitors often.

As CF have gotten smaller, I've been able to use them in more and more fixtures.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jonnycat26 @ Jan 3 2007, 08:24 PM) [snapback]370520[/snapback]</div>

All but 2 bulbs in our house (24 of 26) are CFLs. There are two in a bathroom that aren't globe lights (they're flatter than globes) that are 65W each. Next time I go out I should see if they've got that variety of CFL now. The way things have been going I'm sure that they do.

 

well i cant really remember when i switched from regular fluorescents to the smaller ones. heck, my dad starting the big circular ones when i was a kid.

had the lights in my garage, had a work bench area i tried the CF's but they didnt really last long. someone told me they dont stand temp extreme changes well and my garage was unheated. but then again, all kinds of bulbs burned out fast there. since i wired the garage when i built it, i figured i had bad grounds or something. had 8' tubes in the ceiling though but they seemed to last forever. i think i replaced maybe 3-4 tubes in the 11 years i had the place

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jan 3 2007, 11:03 PM) [snapback]370539[/snapback]</div>

Yes, I have installed a few dimmers in my house too, and have left them incandescent since we usually only operate them about halfway or less. The dimmers save energy, when not on full bright at least, so I wouldn't feel too guilty about those. We have a few can lights that are sort of strategically located, and I've not been able to find a CFL that seems bright enough. The only indoor floods I can find locally are supposedly a 65w equivalent, but they seem too dim even compared to a 65w miser incandescent flood, and dark compared to a plain old 75w indoor flood. Any recommendations?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beryl Octet @ Jan 3 2007, 08:17 PM) [snapback]370549[/snapback]</div>

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Yes -

We have a 3-bedrm house. If I added up correctly, in my head - I have about 24 CFL's in use. If you are serious, one thing to check out is to see how may Lumens a particular CFL produces. Just remember that number. Then when you run across other CFL's, check to see what kind of brightness (Lumens) they produce. I have found some CFL's at Home Depot that are surprisingly bright!

I removed the 6 incandescent bulbs from above my bathroom sink & replaced with 4 CFL's The resulting brightness almost hurts my eyes. Did the same for my wife's bathroom & she INSISTED that I tone them down for her.

Also, if you shop for them occasionally, you'll be surprised how new versions keep popping up. They even make dimmable CFL's now. And I've even seen CFL's with 'candelabra' bases. That's the base that you'll see on 4 to 7 watt night light bulb.



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fphinney @ Jan 3 2007, 09:11 PM) [snapback]370578[/snapback]</div>

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Oh yes -

In California, the local power company will sometimes subsidize CFL's. At Home Depot for instance, I have found CFL's for less than $2 apiece! If I'm running low on my CFL inventory, I will regularly check for those discounts. Sometimes the store will have them in a special promotional spot, away from the rest of the light bulbs. Go figure!

 

my family has been using them for a couple years now. We have spots outside, so we don't use them there. Only 2 of our front lights work.. those are switched. Every bulb in the house is switched. 8 in the front chandelier... 6 in the dining room. 12 in the kitchen. 12 in the hall. 12 or so in my parents room, all bathrooms switched. All trac lighting switched... another 12 or so. the 4 in my room.

if they made compact florescent spot lights.. we would switch out our 300w halogen spots... but i haven't seen them... we did replace our "candle" lights in the dining room with "candle cfls"... and vanity "globes" with globes.... so on.. so on... most of our lights are recessed lighting spot lights... er.. flood... all switched.

the amount saved can probably power most people's houses here on priuschat. we use approximately 50,000kw a year still. enough to power.. how many priuchat houses?

 

Wow. That's a lot of lights.

If I added up every light socket in my house (and I only use maybe half of them) I'd get 4 in library, 7 in sewing room, 2 in bathroom, 9 in bedroom, 3 in kitchen, 8 in dining room, 4 in living room, 4 in garage. 2 in porchlight. That's 43. But some of these are decorative fixtures and not used except for "company".

How many do I normally use on a weekly basis when I enter those rooms? About 15 bulbs. Of those, most are compact florescents. There are days that go by that I don't even enter the library or sewing room or need the garage lights. I've got a tubular skylight in the kitchen and that really cuts down on the use of lights in that space. I'm usually not in that room after dark. And the lights in the bedroom are only on for a few min. before I go to bed and a few min. when I wake in the morning (in the winter when I wake before the sun comes up).

I do have a motion detector floodlight on my garage pointing into the alley. I have no idea how often it is set off. It turns off automatically after a few min. I replace those floodlight bulbs about every 5 years so it couldn't be that often.

I have landscape lighting but it is all solar.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jan 3 2007, 11:07 PM) [snapback]370600[/snapback]</div>

Crikey Moses! That's a lotta lights in yer bedroom. We have 3 lamps (one bulb each).

We downsized our bathroom light fixture from 4 bulbs to 3. The old fixture was in bad shape so it was time to replace it anyways. Four bulbs was overkill (the bathroom is pretty small) and now that we have a sliding glass door instead of curtain the lighting works even better. I'd like to put a tubular skylight in since the room has no windows. Anyone know what one of those things costs to install?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(V8Cobrakid @ Jan 3 2007, 10:23 PM) [snapback]370585[/snapback]</div>

Wow... I assume that you mean 50,000 kWh? We use about 4800 kWh in a year (give or take). Of course, it's just a 1300 sqft, 3 bdrm so it's not like we're in a mansion and using that amount. If I replaced the fridge we could knock it down a bit I think. Ours is pretty old. Most of the low hanging fruit has been picked at this point though.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Jan 4 2007, 02:18 AM) [snapback]370622[/snapback]</div>

There are decorative lamps that I never turn on. The only lights I use are either the overhead light if I need a lot of light (that's a compact florescent hidden by a hanging bowl, that's 1, or the bedside light which has two sockets, but each has a pullchain so I can only use one at a time. The lamp on the other side has a regular light under the shade and a small, nightlight bulb in the base for decorative purposes. I never turn that light on. There is a sconce on the wall with a candelabra bulb in it I never turn on. There are two hurricane lamps on the dresser that I never turn on. There's a compact florescent in the closet on a pullchain. So I only use 3. But never at the same time.

There's a difference between how many lamps and how many sockets and how many lights you actually use.

I've got two table lamps and an overhead light in the library. I never turn on the table lamps. I don't use the light in the dining room because that room is only for passing through to get somewhere else.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(V8Cobrakid @ Jan 4 2007, 06:23 AM) [snapback]370585[/snapback]</div>

CFL's are so last year, they're so inefficient
I'm thinking of trying LED spots.

 

I've been wanting to switch us over for a few years, but my wife was (and still is) concerned about the amount of UV that's put out. She has very sensitive skin and has read about that office fluorescents (the long tubes) are bad for you over time. So she's been leery about CFLs. A little research and how much energy they save has her pretty much convinced.

Any resources (other than manufacturers) I could use to convince her the UV from CFLs is in the same range as incandescents?

 

We changed over to CFL lights a few years ago, replaced them in all the rooms that we use the light on the most...Kitchen, including the one in the hood over the stove, Bath rooms,living room, and all the outside spot lights too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hwalker911 @ Jan 4 2007, 06:43 AM) [snapback]370650[/snapback]</div>

Me too! Didn't want to tee off Al Gore.

~S

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Jan 4 2007, 02:18 AM) [snapback]370622[/snapback]</div>

Just when I think I've done well, there's yet a better benchmark. We use about 10,000 KWH annually, in a house about the size of yours. Or more than twice what you use. I guess I have excuses (we have a pretty heavy AC load here in VA, electric stove/oven, electric clothesdryer, I run 3 computers/1 monitor for my business about 12 hours a day, my wife and I are home most days, all of which are non-negotiable). Still, other than pestering the kids about turning out lights, I don't see any path to reducing electric use further. That's why I'm hawking the prices on photovoltaics -- I think that's my only option at this point.

BTW, and on topic, motion-activated light switches are a great way to make sure lights are not left on needlessly -- but they won't work with fluorescents. At least mine won't. I doubt that they pay for themselves, but they are a convenience. I have set of them in a stairway, which mandates incandescent there, but guarantees that the light only stays on 10 seconds if nobody's there. I've been toying with the idea of mechanical timers for other areas where the kids leave the lights on -- I'm sure those would work with any type of light -- but at some point, that seemed too Scrooge-like even for me.

Though, I gotta say, I'm rethinking that in light of the multiple people who posted in the prior thread about CFL'ing their bathroom light bars and leaving some sockets empty. Maybe I just need a tougher attitude.

 

I broke a 120W-equivalent CFL trying to fit it into a fan's light kit, so I wish they'd reconfigure the spiral on the brighter ones to be smaller. The small ones now aren't bright enough.

I haven't found a cheap LED yet to see if they give off as much light as I'd want...

http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bul...ting/index.aspx

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fphinney @ Jan 4 2007, 12:19 AM) [snapback]370578[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the tips. We have CFLs in most overhead fixtures and all table lamps, and those are the lights we use 90% of the time anyway. Dimmable CFLs sound great, I'll have to look for those.