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Save Money by Switching to Compact Fluorescents Print
Wednesday, 28th June 2006 (by J.D.)This article is about Choices, Frugality, House and Home
How much can you save by switching lightbulbs?
The Technocrat recently did the math and decided to replace all of his incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents. The up-front cost was huge, but he calculated the new bulbs would pay for themselves in just six months.
You can get a six-pack [of compact fluorescents] that costs less than $30, with each bulb putting out as much light as a 60 watt bulb, while only using 13 watts each. In addition, these bulbs are rated for anywhere between 8000 to 10,000+ hours.
When we moved into this house, we contacted a local nonprofit group called The Energy Trust, which works with consumers and utilities to lower energy consumption. We scheduled a free home energy audit. The audit yielded several small one-time tax credits and cash incentives (which are used to reduce the bills from contractors) and about a dozen free compact fluorescent bulbs. In total, we saved about $250. Not bad for an hour spent with the energy auditor!
There are probably similar nonprofit organizations in most major metropolitan areas. A large contractor (such as a heating contractor or an insulation contractor) could probably steer you in the right direction.
June 28th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Check out Home Depot or Ikea for better prices on compact fluorescents. I’ve gotten 6 bulbs for about $10, in which case they pay for themselves in a lot less than 6 months.
June 28th, 2006 at 11:37 am
I’d also like to add that since I wrote that article, the bulds I bought from Home Depot have been 100% problem-free. The ones I got from Walmart have had about a 40% failure rate!!
Definitely go through Home Depot. The only bulbs in my house that aren’t CF’s are in ceiling fans (cheap fans - voltage wasn’t regular enough) and in the garage door opener, and the savings per month are great! (about 80 bulbs now)
June 28th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Here’s the most informative article I’ve found on the subject.
June 28th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
The fluorescents are cheaper, but I use them sparingly. As any photographer knows, fluorescent light makes healthy people look pale and sickly — let alone what it does to people who actually are pale and sickly!
Since we’re always taking photos of our two very fair-skinned toddlers, we’ve went back to incandescent bulbs in our family and dining rooms. That way when we send pix to the grandparents, they don’t call us in a panic.
These bulbs are perfect though for all utility areas which is where I use them. Also, LED nightlights are extremely lowcost and effective.
November 27th, 2006 at 3:42 am
There are a couple of good ways to think about the cost of energy-saving technology: total expected savings over expected service life, and effective rate of return on investment.
So don’t worry about the payback time for your compact fluorescent lamp, and don’t even worry too much about paying $8 for one instead of $4. Each time you decide to replace an incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent, you’ve effectively just decided to save about $30.
Payback time is a bad way to think about this stuff, because it often leads to decisions not to adopt technologies that are actually more than worthwhile.
For example, most people are pretty ambivalent about about installing a solar collector array for hot water heating, on the grounds that the five to seven year expected payback time is quite long.
But analyzing this a different way, things look better: if I’m currently spending $400/year on energy to make my water hot, and I’m trying to decide whether to spend $2000 on a device capable of cutting that back to at most $80/year, I’m looking at a yearly saving of at least $320; that is, I’m getting at least a 16 percent rate of return on my $2000 investment, and I’ll keep on getting that for the collector’s expected 20 year service life.
Plug in your own numbers, and see what sort of rate of return you come up with. Even a ten year payback time is a 10% rate of return, which is respectable.
March 31st, 2007 at 9:04 pm
CFLs are not for everyone and every use but have a permanent place. I do use them, but in only 3 rooms of my house: The kitchen, the master bedroom and the living room, never in the bathroom, hall and other bedrooms. If I had a playroom or other room that the kids used all day, I would use them in there also.
Why? They are of NO use in the other rooms and cost more than they save! Why? Because a CFL is designed to be used for longer intervals and I use them only in rooms that have lights turned on for long times. Obviously, the kitchen/dining room combo and the living room are two places that have lights turned on for several hours. In my case, the master bedroom is also where the computer lives, and seems to be in use for many hours each day. Where you use them lots, leave them on until you are completely done for the day or are leaving the house, don’t turn them off as you leave the room only to turn them back on 15 minutes later.
In other rooms, the lights are on and off almost a much as a Christmas tree blinker. Turning off and on a CFL will kill it quicker than anything, so I don’t use it in places where I expect that activity.
Other places that CFLs don’t work well: The bathroom for one. High humidity places don’t work well. You can get by with bulbs in here if you have a fan and run it for several minutes after hot showers, etc, to get rid of the humidity. Dimmers: A big no no, unless you have a bulb designed for a dimmer. Otherwise, that bulb will die in a year or less. Outside: Also a big no no because of temperature (and where I live in Florida, the humidity), except for special bulbs. I found a yellow CFL designed for outside that also does not attract bugs.
I do agree with the bit about Home Depot bulbs over Walmart bulbs. I bought a 4 pack of 60 watt equivilent bulbs for about $9, the same price as Walmart wanted for 3. The Home Depot brand is called “N:Vision” and I like it lots!!! Also, the Walmart brand uses 16 watts each, the Home Depot brand uses only 14 watts each (I know we are only talking about 2 watts, but hey, while we are saving, lets count each watt). On top of everything, the N:Vision has a 9 year warranty (10,000 hours), more than double what the Walmart brand had. In addition, color makes a BIG difference!!! I didn’t know there were that many shades of white!!! (I’m a man, therefore I only see 7 colors, plus black and white….I have no idea what “periwinkle” is!), and not all shades of white are flattering. The Home Depot N:Vision bulbs I buy are “soft white” (2,700k) and seem closer to a soft white incandescent bulb, not as harsh as others. The N:vision bulbs also “warm up” quicker than the other CFLs seem to.
Finally, CFLs do contain a small amount of mercury. Don’t panic and call the Hazmat team, its not that much. I’ve been told its about 1/100 of the amount in a small medical thermometer. But, it is still mercury, it is still extremely hazardous to Earth life forms, it still adds up in the environment and bodies of life forms, and should not be thrown in your regular garbage. All CFLs should be recycled. In my area, many of your hardware stores, especially ACE and True Value will be happy to accept your bulbs even if you don’t buy anything from them. But, what man can visit a hardware store and not buy something!!