Several years ago, my wife and I made the decision to replace all of the light bulbs in our house with Compact Fluorescent bulbs. We had two principal reasons for doing so:
- Incandescent bulbs were burning out far too quickly due to “dirty power” at our house. I hated changing light bulbs constantly.
- We wanted to save money on our electric bill.
At the time, this was a fairly expensive decision, with bulbs going for about $5.00 each. We expected significant cost savings in electricity, and that initial $200 investment (or so) has continued to pay off for us over the years. Our electric bill — despite multiple computers and a laser printer — is about 20%-30% lower than that of similar households. And our kids forget to turn the light off ALL THE TIME!
(Ack! I’m turning into my father, walking around after my children and shutting off lights!)
In the past two years, Wal-Mart began a push to aggressively discount and market CF bulbs, much to the dismay of manufacturers who make far more money on old-fashioned tungsten bulbs (due to higher margins and shorter life) than on CF. This has driven the price down to around $1.00 each, and with an expected $36.00 savings per bulb over its lifetime compared to incandescent bulbs, this represents a much lower cost to homeowners today than the start of our experiment years ago.
In an effort to conserve electricity for its large and growing population, California — the third-largest economy in the world if it were its own country — is considering a bill which would outlaw further sales of traditional tungsten-based bulbs and mandate CF. In response to this legislation, GE has announced a newer, more energy-efficient tungsten bulb, which promises 1/2 the efficiency of CF today, and equal efficiency within the next few years.
Now, there are downsides to Compact Fluorescent. Chief among them is the fact that even though the light is a more pleasing shade than old-fashioned fluorescent, it’s still running at a base of 3600 cycles per minute. Literally, it’s flashing on and off 60 times per second, matching the frequency of the Alternating Current thrumming a constant rhythm throughout your whole city. Despite reassurances by manufacturers that new electronic ballasts cycle 30,000 times per second and eliminate the “flicker headaches” suffered by many people due to fluorescent lighting, my tachometer (a device to measure RPM, generally for propellers and rotors on my model aircraft) still sees a strong 3600RPM flicker even from CF bulbs.
Additionally, quality control in CF — particularly in the newer, cheaper Wal-Mart brands — is quite spotty. I’ve observed a steady degradation in the quality of bulbs as the price has dropped. With a new price point of only $0.50-$1.00 over competing tungsten bulbs, I’m finding newer CF bulbs aren’t lasting as long as their $5.00 ancestors. Many of them end up slow starting or burning out quickly. Of course, those more expensive bulbs are still on the shelf, but who’s buying?
CF bulbs also take a moment longer than incandescents to “turn on”. This is a minor nitpick; it’s a fraction of a second, but noticeable.
Lastly, CF bulbs do not handle cold weather nearly as well as tungsten bulbs. The bulb in my garage is quite dim in the winter, and much brighter in the summer.
So here’s the question: Who’s buying? Do you use compact fluorescents in your home, or do you stick with incandescent bulbs? Why or why not?
Using ’em
I am using CF bulbs in the house and at the office.
After watching “An Inconvenient Truth,” I started buying CFs to replace existing bulbs. One of today’s foremost energy-saving declarations is for people to replace ‘old’ bulbs with CFs. I don’t have a quick one to give but there’s a common stat claiming some impressive reduction of greenhouse gas for each new CF bulb, converted to car exhaust for comparison’s sake.
Normal people wait until their light bulbs naturally burn out before replacing with CFs. However, in our house, Wife Unit has this uncanny ability to destroy a light bulb with the flick of the switch. She has that magic touch. She’s great at parties. Friends can’t wait for her to show up and start touching light switches. She is human brown-out facilitation.
The other problem in my house is that Wife Unit doesn’t mind running all lights simultaneously. It’s like she’s warming the circuits up for her final display of immense power; the grand finale sure to amaze all. I’ll come home and find her downstairs watching TV while lights are on upstairs in every room, no doubt figuring out ways to form a compacting fluorescence union and coax the furnace into also working overtime for no good reason. The fact that I’m seeing a reduction in the monthly electricity bill is testament to miracles in our everyday lives.
Matt’s downsides above are so minor that it makes the pure case for going out and buying CFs. I’m surprised one of your problems wasn’t, “and it comes in this really ugly box!” 🙂
Go get ’em and use ’em.
EDIT by matthew: CFC == chlorofluorocarbons. CF == Compact Fluorescent, or Carbon Fiber.
Energy Savings
Despite the few scientists who vocally disagree with this show, it’s moving and powerful. I enjoy how it motivates people to action without emotional appeals, but instead invites people to study the facts and come to their own conclusions about what to do.
It’s too bad that so many people won’t ever see it because it features Al Gore. No, it’s true, I’m positive certain of my relatives will never see it because they thought the Clinton administration was of the Devil.
Christy once destroyed a laptop with an electric arc from her elbow. That’s talent, I tell you!
I’m certain that our $90/month electric bill (gas furnace, gas water heater, and a swamp cooler rather than A/C) would be considerably higher using incandescents. We like ’em so much that I think my wife is serious about taking every light bulb when we eventually move out…
Hard-plastic blister packs were invented by agents of Satan to discourage product returns. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I can’t count how often I’ve cut my fingers on that type of packaging. Scissors and an acetylene torch should not be a prerequisite for accessing a product you purchase at your local retailer.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
How low can we go?
We’re averaging a $55/month electric bill, including lights, appliances, security system and one computer station. The water heater and furnace are gas. I don’t even want to get into our monthly gas bill because it could provoke suicidal thoughts and set me back months of therapy.
Wonder what accounts for the difference?
I wonder what accounts for the difference in our electric bills? I run a swamp cooler in the summer… maybe a less-efficient house or something… Or four kids who leave all the lights on, the TV running all day looping a DVD intro, computers on all the time, and three freezers…
Maybe it’s time for me to buy that one, large, efficient freezer.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Not for me
I bought some cheaper ones at Home Depot a year ago. They still cost a good bit more than standard bulbs. They suck. They turned purple in about a month. They look ugly in visible fixtures.
I think human-caused global warming is still definitely debatable. Al Gore may have a nice movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but then I haven’t seen The Godfather or The Shining either, and I think I should see those first, as a member of the American culture.
I do drive a Prius…
I also take antimalarials during my frequent trips to India. Of course, poor locals can’t afford those, but it does keep DDT out of the environment…
Tried them
As we are finishing our basement, I bought a few of the CF bulbs to see how I liked them and I ended up returning them. I hated the temp of the light that it gave off. I have been using for a couple years now the GE natural light bulbs. I like the light they produce.