Those twisty energy-saving light bulbs

[SpeedRacer 1]

I've been buying the ones that CLAIM to be as bright as a 60W incandescent bulb, but the fact is that the light they give off is dimmer and more yellowish than the soft-white incandescent bulbs I'd been using.

I'd like to not have to change bulbs so often, and save energy, but the twisty bulbs are not all that they claim.

Speed Racer
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[Lindsey 0]

When you figure out how long they last, let me know. I just never can get around to changing lightbulbs until a whole room is dark. Who cares if it's a little yellow-tinted...lol. If it lasts a little longer, that's a little longer I'll go without stumping my little toe.

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[shermanator 4]

when you buy them, make sure you are getting the right color rendering you want. some CFLs are orange, some are white in color. .. has to do with the kelvins /color rendering and such.

CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08
CSA #720

[Shell666 0]

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when you buy them, make sure you are getting the right color rendering you want. some CFLs are orange, some are white in color. .. has to do with the kelvins /color rendering and such.

I have one of the bright white ones in the stairwell into my basement.

Yes, they are "white" (and not yellow) but the light they cast is worse than a Zippo lighter.

I'm leaving it in there until spring when I'll move it to my outdoor lights on my garage and replace it with something that casts more light.

Still looking for something that lasts as long as they do but is as bright as a regular light bulb's.

The one in the stairwell has been in there since the fall - about 5 or 6 months

The regular bulbs I have in my kitchen light have been replaced twice since I put that one in - granted the kitchen light is used more than the light in the basement stairwell.

I'd like to replace all the bulbs in my house with something more efficient but I've found that the light they cast isn't sufficient for reading. I prefer to keep my eyes over using "efficient" bulbs.

If you find something like that, let me know.

'Shell

[shermanator 4]

bummer. I agree, CFLs tend to be a little more dull than incandescent lights. The main advantage is the energy savings obtained from using the flourescents.. Lifetime of lamp to watts used, the CFLs are much more energy efficient. .. Perhaps try going to a higher wattage on the lamp, and see if that makes a difference. .. look at the color when you purchase the lamp. .. Or just stick with the Incandescent if you are not worried about rep lacing the bulbs. they are cheaper at the time of purchase at least. Good luck.

CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08
CSA #720

[Andrewwhyte 1]

I just put the 100w replacement ones where I used to have a 60w incandescent.

[sunshine 2]

One day i hope i can afford that fancy electricity...until then i'll keep using my lantern and outdoor plumbing.

___________________________________________
meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

[Darktreader 0]

your not gonna have a choice soon.. yahoo front page news had a story a few weeks ago about the incandesent light bulb will be phased out completely within 5 years to the more envirementally & energy freindly bulbs. Yes they said "less light" but last 5 times longer and uses less energy and less harmfull to envirement.

"Before we waste time talking and getting to know each other, let's just have sex once and see if we're compatible"

[ChangoLanzao 0]

In the winter time in Maryland you're not saving a single milliWatt-microsecond of energy by using one of those bulbs. You do heat your house don't you? Whatever energy any electrical device puts out in your home is only contributing to heating your home, which you have to do anyway. Especially in winter, just use the brightest friggin incandescent bulbs that you want. Whatever heat they put out is just that much less heat that your central heating system has to put in.

[ChangoLanzao 0]

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One day i hope i can afford that fancy electricity...until then i'll keep using my lantern and outdoor plumbing.

Bad news, Sunny. The lantern is more expensive than electricity.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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In the winter time in Maryland you're not saving a single milliWatt-microsecond of energy by using one of those bulbs. You do heat your house don't you? Whatever energy any electrical device puts out in your home is only contributing to heating your home, which you have to do anyway. Especially in winter, just use the brightest friggin incandescent bulbs that you want. Whatever heat they put out is just that much less heat that your central heating system has to put in.

i guess that's true if you have electric heat, but electric heat is very inefficient compared to other methods.

[ChangoLanzao 0]

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In the winter time in Maryland you're not saving a single milliWatt-microsecond of energy by using one of those bulbs. You do heat your house don't you? Whatever energy any electrical device puts out in your home is only contributing to heating your home, which you have to do anyway. Especially in winter, just use the brightest friggin incandescent bulbs that you want. Whatever heat they put out is just that much less heat that your central heating system has to put in.

i guess that's true if you have electric heat, but electric heat is very inefficient compared to other methods.

You got numbers? I'd like to see them

[Shell666 0]

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bummer. I agree, CFLs tend to be a little more dull than incandescent lights. The main advantage is the energy savings obtained from using the flourescents.. Lifetime of lamp to watts used, the CFLs are much more energy efficient. .. Perhaps try going to a higher wattage on the lamp, and see if that makes a difference. .. look at the color when you purchase the lamp. .. Or just stick with the Incandescent if you are not worried about rep lacing the bulbs. they are cheaper at the time of purchase at least. Good luck.

I did put the energy efficient bulbs, the highest wattage I could find, in ALL my lights for 2 months (because I heard that would save on my electric bill).

All I saved on my electric bill was about $6 or $8 (would have to dig up the bills to find out the exact amount) over that 2 month period.

I turn off the lights and anything else when I'm not in a room - at this time of year, I leave the outside lights on my garage on when I get home (about 4pm) and when I leave in the morning (about 7am) - it's dark back there!

I have a fairly new fridge (about 6 years old). I have a new (2 years old) stove, new (2-1/2 years old - front load small capacity) washer and dryer (do laundry once a week) - all energy star rated.

This fall, I drained my hot tub (due to a leak that had to wait until spring to fix) so the heater isn't draining energy.

I "thought" the hot tub was increasing my bill. It hasn't been running since October.

My bills have gone UP! Both electric and gas. And it hasn't been that cold that my furnace should be using THAT much natural gas (I turn it down to about 65o at night - up to about 68o during the day - I have a dog that's home during the day).

At this time of year, light bulbs mean a lot to me. It's getting better but for the last 3 months, it's nice to have "light" in the morning and "light" when I get home. Come summer, I don't use the light bulbs in my house at all.

And during those summer months (when it's daylight from 5am to 10pm), I haven't found that my electric bills change much from now (when it's dark when I get up at 6am, and almost dark when I get home at 4pm).

I'm not against those "twisty" bulbs but to be honest, I tried them and they didn't make enough of a difference for me.

'Shell

[TrophyHusband 0]

i tried them and just didn't like them. i wish i did, i would love to save money and not have burned out bulbs.

"Your scrotum is quite nice" - Skymama
www.kjandmegan.com

[shermanator 4]

the savings are not as obvious when they are used in residential homes. I did some retrofits for RICOH where we took out some *can't remember exact wattage , but think it was over 300W High Pressure Sodium *orange color light* and replaced with Flourescent lamps. the wattage was more than twice as low, and when all complete, did produce more illumination on the dock/inside warehosue.

The energy savings is more of an 'over time' thing. They are more expensive for the initial cost, but when used constantly, are much cheaper to purchase, run, maintain, and such.

the fixture that the CFLs are in makes a huge difference as well.

as fore the cfls being more enviromentally safe.. I'm not too sure about that. Each one has mercury in it, and though, some states consider the amount a 'safe' amount, it is still mercury, and when combined with hundreds of them lights in broken, and in the trash.. that is alot of mercury.

CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08
CSA #720

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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You got numbers? I'd like to see them

Nope. Not gonna dig them up either. Since most electricity in US is produced by burning things it is impossible to use it to make things warm more efficiently than just lighting the fire in the place you want to be warm.

[ChangoLanzao 0]

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You got numbers? I'd like to see them

Nope. Not gonna dig them up either. Since most electricity in US is produced by burning things it is impossible to use it to make things warm more efficiently than just lighting the fire in the place you want to be warm.

Impossible? I think not!

Have you considered all of the energy that is used to move the gas from wherever it came from to the point where it enters your home?

When you heat with gas, you generally have to heat the entire house.

You use an electric fan to move that gas generated heat around to all the rooms of your home, right?. It uses A LOT of electricity.

At least 20% of the heat generated by your furnace goes directly up the flue.

All electrical appliances are basically space heaters dumping 100% of the electricity they use into the room as heat. Space heaters allow you to keep your gas thermostat set WAY lower since you can more easily heat just those areas that you are actually inhabiting (or as you said, "lighting the fire in the place you want to be warm.").

It may not apply in your case, but I'd say that it's definitely possible to use electricity more efficiently than gas, especially when you take into account the entire fuel cycle for each source.

[billvon 3,067]

> In the winter time in Maryland you're not saving a single
>milliWatt-microsecond of energy by using one of those bulbs.

Sure you are. Burning stuff directly and using the heat is a lot more efficient than burning it somewhere else, boiling water, running the steam through turbines, spinning generators to produce power, upconverting it, sending it over a transmission line, downconverting it and then piping it into your house.

A coal fired power plant (the most common here) is about 30% efficient, and the transmission system is around 92% efficient, for a total efficiency of around 27%. Compare that to 80% for a decent oil-fired heater.

To look at it another way, that bulb is using the energy of the coal and putting 73% of it in the air _outside_ the house. An oil fired heater only puts about 20% of the heat out the chimney.

(And if you want 100% efficiency, there are non-vented natural gas heaters that don't waste any heat up a flue.)

[billvon 3,067]

>but the fact is that the light they give off is dimmer and more
>yellowish than the soft-white incandescent bulbs I'd been using.

You can get any color temperature and/or intensity level you like with compact fluorescents. In my experience, you go down in wattage by 3x to get the same light output. So to replace a 75 watt bulb, you want to get a 25 watt CF.

There are four common color temperatures:

3000K warm white (very yellowish or reddish)
3500K
4100K cool white (i.e. your standard fluorescent tube)
5000K daylight (very 'bluish')

I prefer the 3500K, which is a bit 'bluer' than an incandescent, but I think looks better overall.

There is also the CRI, or color rendering index, which indicates how full the spectrum is. Tricolor phosphors (which CFs and some tubes use) give you in the high 80's. Cheap fluorescents give you in the 60's and 70's and make things look odd.

And of course, there are good manufacturers and bad manufacturers. Osram and Philips are excellent. With Lights of America you're lucky to get two years out of them.

[Unstable 9]

I used those in my apt in Wichita for a summer. I used only those, I kept my apt stupidly hot, I lived in the basement, and I only paid $40 a month for electricity...

=========Shaun ==========

[ChangoLanzao 0]

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> In the winter time in Maryland you're not saving a single
>milliWatt-microsecond of energy by using one of those bulbs.

Sure you are. Burning stuff directly and using the heat is a lot more efficient than burning it somewhere else, boiling water, running the steam through turbines, spinning generators to produce power, upconverting it, sending it over a transmission line, downconverting it and then piping it into your house.

A coal fired power plant (the most common here) is about 30% efficient, and the transmission system is around 92% efficient, for a total efficiency of around 27%. Compare that to 80% for a decent oil-fired heater.

To look at it another way, that bulb is using the energy of the coal and putting 73% of it in the air _outside_ the house. An oil fired heater only puts about 20% of the heat out the chimney.

(And if you want 100% efficiency, there are non-vented natural gas heaters that don't waste any heat up a flue.)

Fair enough. There are a couple of parameters you've left out. How much energy is used to get the oil from it's source and into all of the homes? If you're going to argue that a central power plant is only thirty percent efficient overall that's correct (I worked in the power industry a while back, so I am fully aware that you are correct in your estimates). However, you also should account for the economy of scale of burning the oil at a central location vs trucking/pumping it to every individual household for burning.

I'm also wondering how much more/less energy is used to manufacture/package/distribute those twisty energy-saving light bulbs.

[slotperfect 7]

I'm using them in the hard-to-change places like the overhead lights in the hallways. The light is different, you're right, but in those locations it really doesn't matter in my house.

Arrive Safely

John

[Amazon 7]

They do come in various wattage equivalents you know....

I do not have a single incandescent light bulb in anything except for a few lamps that are hardly ever used with the 1/2" diameter sockets.

I have had one of them burn out in the 7 year period that I have owned my house. I also have them in the motion sensor lights outdoors... a new kind of spotlights.

My only qualm with them is when you first turn on some of them...they are fairly dim.. but as they warm up they get full luminosity.

[wmw999 2,532]

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My only qualm with them is when you first turn on some of them...they are fairly dim.. but as they warm up they get full luminosity.

That's exactly my experience. As my light bulbs die, I've been replacing them with compact fluorescents (well, except for the two halogen fixtures I have in the family room, obviously). I don't have any plans to change from that.

The one light that I'd prefer to be full brightness right from the first is the one over the desk, and it's a regular fluorescent, so it doesn't matter.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[mr2mk1g 10]

Halogen's can be replaced with L.E.D. clusters (as in slotted straight into the same place the old halogen was just removed from). Same light output, much lower wattage, thousands of times the life expectancy.