What kind of energy saving/efficient light bulbs?

[Torquejumper]

I just recently upgraded from an apt. to a small house. I was wondering what kind of energy saving/efficient light bulbs do some of you guys used for your house/apt.? I'm trying to cut back on electricity cost as much as possible. By the way, what is the standard wattage for incandescent light bulbs in most household that comes with it?

 

[PandaBear]

Usually you can get the CFL that has an "equivalent to" wattage. For CFL I'll usually go bigger than the fixture was rated for because heat isn't a concern and it takes time for it to warm up to full light condition.

Since you are in california, there's lots of $1 CFL sponsored by PG&E. They are usually noisy but cheap. For higher quality light, I usually use IKEA branded ones. Cheap and good quality.

 

[huffmuds9320]

It depends on the fixture and frequency of use in that particular room. For rooms that have the light on/off frequently or for short durations like bathroom or closet then I would use incandescent. If the fixture has a dimmer switch I would stick with incandescent bulbs. For fixtures that are used for more than a few hours a day I would use cfl.

I recently saw halogen bulbs that are shaped like regular light bulbs at Home Depot and Lowes. They are halogen capsules with a glass cover on them so it looks like incandescent. Home Depot has the Philips Halogena and Eco Vantage bulbs. Lowes has the Sylvania Super Saver halogen. These may be a good choice alternative to regular incandescent.

Not sure what you mean by the standard wattage of incandescent bulbs that household comes with. The maximum wattage is printed on the fixture usually.

 

[MolaKule]

Much of the lighting in older houses use incandescent light bulbs that consume 75 to 100 watts each.

Most indoor incandescent lights use a tungsten filament such that they transform about 90% of the electrical power to heat and have only 2.5% luminous efficiency.

A Compact Flourescent Lamp (CFL) can produce about the same amount of light as a 75 watt incandescent light and consume only 30 to 40 watts. CFL's use a FET switching transistor and coils to generate a high voltage discharge through a mercury gas. A coating inside the bulb converts the mercury's UV light to visible light.

When I use a CFL, I try to use a light with a color temperature of 2,700 K, since it more closely duplicates an incandescent light. If you need a bright bench light, use a 5,000 K or 7000 k light, which generates a bluish white light.

If you break a CFL, take off your rings and jewelry and use gloves for clean-up since mercury can be poisonous.

I use soft gloves to screw in CFL's for that reason.

 

[Torquejumper]

I appreciate all the knowledgeable inputs. From the looks of it, in terms of reducing electrical cost in the long run, probably CFL is the best choice for me even with the small mercury content; it will be handle with caution.

My house doesn't have a dimmer switch, just the regular flip switch. A dimmer switch would be nice though.

I went Walmart to check out the prices for CFL. Most of them are 7-8 dollars for three. Seems a bit expensive to me. Is this the best deal out there, or do places like Lowes,Home Depot, and Orchard Supply have better deals?

 

[PandaBear]

There are dimable CFL but are more expensive. I had one but the one I got was noisy because they were the low quality $1 PG&E subsidized sale.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Much of the lighting in older houses use incandescent light bulbs that consume 75 to 100 watts each.

Most indoor incandescent lights use a tungsten filament such that they transform about 90% of the electrical power to heat and have only 2.5% luminous efficiency.


I was surprised when we met the author lady in New York, and she was describing 10+ 100W incandescents on at any given time...highest general room rated globe mot Aussies use is around 60...10x100W, burning most of the time would cost me $1560 p.a.

I've read that people are bypassing the CFL laws in Europe, by marketing incandescents as "heaters". Guy I know who keep herps make me believe this as true.

We had an IKEA moment some years ago (only ever been in one store once), and fitted the whole house out with CFLs where they worked, and next power bill was notably smaller in consumption (they keep growing in price).

 

[OriginalRocket]

I like a bright house, every bulb is either a 75 or 100 watt... 16-23watt real usage CFL. Except for the kitchen are r30'[email protected] real.

We had a sale at ace hardware for $1 per any wattage CFL bulb. I bought out the entire store of anything 60plus watts equivalent. These bulbs where the GE kind, no humming noise like those ikea [censored] Chinese no name Eco [censored] bulbs.

Stick with Phillips, Orasm, GE bulbs and they will last their rated life, and not hum and buzz like so many other cfls do.

I have the bedrooms on dimmers, so those are dimmable 100watters x2.

Dimmable bulbs do work great just make sure you get the high quality bulbs. All indoor bulbs are 2700k ish.

I run 4500k-5000k daylight bulbs for the garage and front door. Yeah those are 100w equivalent too.

 

[lyle]

I'm trying out some LED bulbs in some applications. They are 3000K color temp, so they are very close to incandescent light color, and depending on the bulb use either 6W, 7W, or 15W each. The 6W are about equivalent to a 40W incan while the 7W are equivalent to 60W incans. The 15W bulb is an outdoor PAR38 flood light, equal to a 75W incan. In the applications where I'm using them, I am very pleased. I get instant full brightness compared to CFL's and the light is very even. These are not for everyone, however. The beam pattern is only 180 deg, so these are best used in a downlight application. I'm using them in my bathrooms, kitchen dining area, dining room, and outdoors in my porch recessed fixtures. All these fixtures are high mounted with the bulbs pointed down. Also, these bulbs are expensive. The price on these will come down, but actual durability will only come with time.

If anyone is interested, try www.earthled.com

 

[RFIRE]

Consumer Reports liked the Home Depot Warm light CFL's the best. LED's are going to be a great option once the price comes down a bit. Give it a year or two. More efficient incadescent bulbs will hit the market soon. Some will use the heat energy of the bulb to reflect back at the filament and increase the light output by about 50%. GE has been selling industrial bulbs of this kind for several years now. Also, organic light bulbs are said to be ready to hit the market any day now.

But today, any quality CFL is the best cost effective way to go.

 

[Greggy_D]

Originally Posted By: Torquejumper
I'm trying to cut back on electricity cost as much as possible.



We did the same and our electric company raised the rates because "demand is down". Utterly ridiculous. You conserve like they tell you to do, but they just bend you over anyway.

 

[meangreen01]

Originally Posted By: Greggy_D
Originally Posted By: Torquejumper
I'm trying to cut back on electricity cost as much as possible.



We did the same and our electric company raised the rates because "demand is down". Utterly ridiculous. You conserve like they tell you to do, but they just bend you over anyway.


+1. Same goes for water rates 'round here.

 

[Torino]

Originally Posted By: Greggy_D
Originally Posted By: Torquejumper
I'm trying to cut back on electricity cost as much as possible.



We did the same and our electric company raised the rates because "demand is down". Utterly ridiculous. You conserve like they tell you to do, but they just bend you over anyway.
Yes, the large utilities are 'quasi gonvernmental' bodies anyway. You don't think they are lying to you, right? John--Las Vegas

 

[Nick R]

I just use the GE, Sylvania bulbs. They are going on 3 years and not a single one has burnt out, or buzzes. The one thing I don't like about CFL bulbs are that they aren't instantly maximum brightness, but that's not a big deal. We use them outside, for the carriage light and porch light (non-spot ones) and they take about 15 minutes to get to maximum brightness when it is really cold (like it was last night, down to 1 degree f. Woo! *brr*

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Greggy_D
We did the same and our electric company raised the rates because "demand is down". Utterly ridiculous. You conserve like they tell you to do, but they just bend you over anyway.


But if you don't conserve and someone else do, your rate will be raised even more right?

 

[MolaKule]

Quote:
I'm trying out some LED bulbs in some applications. They are 3000K color temp, so they are very close to incandescent light color, and depending on the bulb use either 6W, 7W, or 15W each. The 6W are about equivalent to a 40W incan while the 7W are equivalent to 60W incans. The 15W bulb is an outdoor PAR38 flood light, equal to a 75W incan. In the applications where I'm using them, I am very pleased. I get instant full brightness compared to CFL's and the light is very even. These are not for everyone, however. The beam pattern is only 180 deg, so these are best used in a downlight application.


I am also using LED's in certain applications such as desk lights and outside garage lights.

Cree is doing a lot with multiple LED chips: I use their stuff when I can find them:

http://www.cree.com/

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/

 

[Errtt]

Originally Posted By: Torquejumper
I appreciate all the knowledgeable inputs. From the looks of it, in terms of reducing electrical cost in the long run, probably CFL is the best choice for me even with the small mercury content; it will be handle with caution.

My house doesn't have a dimmer switch, just the regular flip switch. A dimmer switch would be nice though.

I went Walmart to check out the prices for CFL. Most of them are 7-8 dollars for three. Seems a bit expensive to me. Is this the best deal out there, or do places like Lowes,Home Depot, and Orchard Supply have better deals?

Check Costco. That's where I get mine. They are .99 each in a 5 or 6-pk. The rebate is honored at the register automatically so they are .99
If your not a Costco member, you can tag along with someone who is.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Greggy_D
Originally Posted By: Torquejumper
I'm trying to cut back on electricity cost as much as possible.



We did the same and our electric company raised the rates because "demand is down". Utterly ridiculous. You conserve like they tell you to do, but they just bend you over anyway.


Around 16-17 year ago, in my state, the cost of generating electricity was 4-7c/KWhr depending on the station...retail costs were 11c/KWhr.

Competition has meant that the costs of generation have dropped markedly (spot prices are consistently 2.5c/KWhe, and my home retail costs are 18.6c/KWhr.

It's frustrating for my colleagues to be constantly cost and reliability focused to keep our generating companies heads above water, while our bills rise and rise...and (the newly privatised) retailers are pushing for 40% plus more over the next couple of years.

 

[rpn453]

Globe CFL bulbs have been very good to me. I must have at least 20 in use - many since 2003 - with no failures. I have the 9W (40W equivalent) and 13W (60W equivalent) curlies, as well as some 13W decorative spheres in the bathroom. I've also used Noma bulbs and Wal Mart's Great Value bulbs. The Nomas lasted a few years before dying. A couple of the ultra-compact Great Values failed very quickly, but all the less compact, longer-life-rated Great Values have been good so far.

All brands I've tried seem to have the occasional 'buzzers'. I use those for the outdoor lights.

Globe had a recall back in 2003 or 2004 where they sent me replacements without asking for the defective ones in return. By this time I had noticed that Canadian Tire was exchanging the defective ones so I got two for one out of that deal!

 

[opus1]

I almost started a new thread but found this one so I'm adding a question here; Since the CFL's "actual" wattage use is smaller than an incandescent's, ie, less heat is generated, I'm assuming that it's safe to use a larger "equivalent" bulb.

For example, if I have a fixture that says use 60W maximum in incancesdent bulbs, it's OK to use a CFL that's equivalent to a 100W light output since the bulb is actually using a little over 20W to make the light?