Yeah! Another one of my incandescent light bulbs went out!

You should stop replacing your incandescents with CFCs (Chloro-Fluoro-Carbons) and start using CFLs (compact-fluorescents)

 

Yes I am the same way!

I am actually going to start buying these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/P130-120-Warm-Soft-Whi...1QQcmdZViewItem

And similar LED lights.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(htmlspinnr @ May 8 2007, 10:10 AM) [snapback]437488[/snapback]</div>

BTW, LEDs are dimmable.

 

I'm about to buy these and replace all my "in roof" lamps at home. I need them to be dimmable and these are the ones I've found:

http://www.nolico.com/saveenergy/dimmable_lamps.htm#Items

I like that they are dimmable, but the price is "steep".

*) Do anyone have experience with dimmable CFLs? Do they work well?

*) Anyone with a cheaper source of dimmable CFLs?

*) Alric: Can you expand on your experience with LEDs? What type of lamps have you replaces with LEDs? My understanding is that they are still too weak for indoor flood light?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SomervillePrius @ May 8 2007, 12:52 PM) [snapback]437611[/snapback]</div>

I haven't started buying them. Manufacturers can tell you the watt equivalent of an incandescent lamp. What I have noticed is that lately their intensity has increased recently.

 

i used to want to sit around and wait for the old bulbs to burn out. then i wondered what the hell i was thinking.

first, i assume you already bought the replacement CFLs... so it's not like there's a cost threshold. next, you have these efficient bulbs sitting around, yet you let these inefficient things light your home. third, it's not like the lifetime of the CFLs is even comparable to that of incandescents. so it's not like you're saving a substantial amount of money on lighting because that extra 3 months the incandescent lasts is another 3 months you won't have to buy a CFL. while this particular statement may hold true, CFLs last for years anyway, what's a couple months over that time period?

that was my reasoning for dumping the old ones right away. but.. unlike many here, i decided to save them and when we move out, we will take our CFLs and put the old cheapies back.

 

My reason for not replacing the "cheapies" is that they where manufactured and transported from china to my door. I don't want to waste that "energy" by throwing them away and I'm thinking that this energy is actually higher then the energy the new ones will save.

So I let them burn out but replace any burned out lamp with a CFL when possible

 

The energy is already wasted! Stop the waste! And Galaxee, leave the CFLs in place when you move and hopefully we'll have another convert when the next moves in

Anyone talking about dimmers, consider the fact that some dimmers work by resisting, i.e. throwing away electricity. If you have older dimmers of the rheostat type, and you want to save a little, upgrade your dimmers so you're not throwing power away.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SomervillePrius @ May 8 2007, 01:52 PM) [snapback]437611[/snapback]</div>

Dimmable CFLs are only slightly dimmable, you can't get them down to a nice rosy "mood lighting" level. I tried one one (because there was already a dimmer), ended up replacing the dimmer instead. Possible others are better than what I tried, but I think that they all have a limited range of light output -- none are really full-range dimmable.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SomervillePrius @ May 8 2007, 02:38 PM) [snapback]437642[/snapback]</div>

I had a good reference on this -- life cycle costs -- but couldn't find it. But a commonsense (and true, in this case) argument is the following. The cost of the bulb covers at least the cost of the energy used to manufacture and transport it, at least in the long run. Plus other items - other inputs to manufacture other than energy. The cost of an incandescent 100 watter is maybe 60 cents. So energy cost in manufacture, transport, and retailing of the bulb is under $0.60. With 1500 hour life it'll use 150 KWH = $15 of electricty, at 10c/KWH (my rates). That's all energy cost. So the ratio of energy in use to energy in manufacture must be greater than 15.00/0.60. Almost all the energy is in the use. Toss them now without regret.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ May 8 2007, 04:37 PM) [snapback]437778[/snapback]</div>

You might be right. The site claim they can go down to 20% of full power (i.e "75W"X0.2=15 watts). Probably not as low as I would like but should work at least in living room.

So there are dimmers that can handle dimming "any" CFL? Need to look into that! Might be a better solution?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ May 8 2007, 04:37 PM) [snapback]437778[/snapback]</div>

You argument make sense and I should have thought about the cost. I think that settles it... Time to go buy abunch of CFLs

 

Long-life incandescents are especially evil. They achieve their long life by being designed to run cooler than ordinary bulbs. But as they are essentially "black body" emitters, lower temperature also means that they produce proportionately more heat and less light per unit of energy used. Note that the same thing happens when any incandescent bulb is used with a dimmer.

 

Interesting. I didn't know that. Are dimmable CFL equally inefficient?

I will def. replace al my bulbs now!

 

Here are some nice LED bulbs as well; I think I'm gonna start with the bulb I need to buy for my drop light .

Thanks, Alric, for pointing out the LED bulbs. I'd been thinking about them for some time but didn't know that LED bulbs even existed.

 

I would like to convert all/most of my lights to CFL bulbs (and am slowly doing it), but does anyone have recommendations for CFLs that produce "nice" light? I've managed to convince my S.O. to change a lot of the lights in our apartment to CFLs (office, kitchen, closets), but there are some places where she insists (and I agree) that incandescents give a much better light. In our bedroom, we have one of those "Reveal" incandescents that give a very nice (closer to solar spectrum) type of light. Is there anything like this for CFLs? It seems like the bulb companies should be able to find filters that would make the light more pleasing. Are there any "magic bullet" bulbs that people are aware of or am I just going to have to be content with trying to sneak CFL bulbs in and hope she doesn't notice?

 

OK what about the mercury that each CFL contains? Is that an issue as far as the enviroment? They do still burn out and have to be disposed in the landfill right? I like the LED's but geeeeez the initial cost is frightening! :blink:

Wildkow

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Betelgeuse @ May 23 2007, 12:06 PM) [snapback]448264[/snapback]</div>

In the kids bathrooms I put a bunch of 'daylight' CFLs. They seem to put out a good white light. I think they are from GE.