Light bulbs...(nothing to do with fishing whatsoever)

[Mr. Sandman]

While working in a normal office setting, most design engineers became familar with the saying..."Don't re-invent the light bulb". But that is exactly what some have done and I have to say with some degree of success! I recently purchaced about $400 of new CFL bulbs and started replacing my infastructure.
Recently I read an article on the new generation of CFL bulbs and tried a few. The Compact Fluorescent Light bulb. They screw into a regular incandescent socket but are a fluorescent light. Because of my engineering background I am hung up on efficiently and the article touted how great these are and one of the stores were having a sale for one day for 99 cents you can purchase them. So I said what the hell and bought a dozen. The .99 versions were 60-watt replacement bulbs. You might have seen them they have a curly tube attached to small ballast that screws into an incandescent socket.
Well I found a place for them but was not happy with the quality of the light they produced. But this got me researching these things. There are some better quality light bulbs now! I am finishing off my basement into several new rooms about 2500 square feet of space...a spare bedroom, bath, workshop, office, home theater, pantry a computer room and a reading room of sorts...anyway I counted 37"cans" of recessed lighting. ) On average say 70 watts of floodlights and a few specialty lights.
I got further interested in these things because the other night my son asked me to help him with his homework and while I was sitting there his desk lamp was cooking me. I looked at the bulb and it was a halogen light that was hot as hell. I could not touch it. Also there were several 100 what bulbs in my workshop that was so hot it was cooking the fixtures and starting to bake the material around it.
I replace the shop lights and a few lights that had thick glass shades with these curly things and they seemed fine. Slightly harsh light color but cool and allot less power.
When looking into these things I found several sources of dimmable and 3-way CFL bulbs as well as decent flood lights with colors close to that as incandescent. I need up buying a range of bulbs to test them out. Then I placed an order to completely use these things in the new space.

I have to say I am pleased. I computed the cost savings will exceed $350 per year and the quality of the light is " almost" as good as the incandescent but definitely worth it. The cost savings will pay for the bulbs in the first year. Also, I put them in my office where I read and after using it I am really happy. I first thought ...oh it is not the same but after a few days it is actually better.

I went on to replace a few of the general household bulbs to see what the rest of the crew thought. IN the laundry room I replaced the fixture bulbs that had two 75 watt incandescent bulbs in a glass dome with 23 watt CFLs that produced about 100 watts per bulb with a lot less heat and more light. The color was a warm white 2700K which is similar to classic light bulbs.
My wife said...Hey did you do something in the laundry room? It is much brighter in there and I can actually see what I am doing now. (And it is saving me about 100 watts!)

Down the basement I did the math and the savings is dramatic. I have to say I spent a bunch of time finding the bulbs I wanted and over all the light is slightly different then the standard colors but IMO it is MORE then worth it.

I don't have to worry about the kids leaving the lights on and walking out of the room (a common occurrence). I plan on replacing the rest of the house lights with these over time. I expect when I am done my savings will be about $1000 per year. (About the cost of the light bulbs...but they last about 5-10X longer then the standard bulbs)

Anyway, try one of these out.... Make sure you get the right "color" light or you will be disappointed.

I can't replace every bulb yet because some fixtures are designed with the standard bulb in mind but 95% of the lights can be replaced with these things.

[Raven]

have you come up with any prefered brands....or the type that produces more light than others? I've been wanting to do the same.

[Slingah]

Originally Posted by Raven

have you come up with any prefered brands....or the type that produces more light than others? I've been wanting to do the same.

yes good thread sandman
wondering on brands as well

[Mr. Sandman]

I actually self tested a bunch of them one right next to the other (I have a whole shopping bag of these slightly different bulbs) and it is hard to pick a single brand. What you need to know are the specs you prefer. The same manufacturer makes many brands under different names in some cases. If you check out 1000bulbs.com or do a goggle search for CLF bulbs you will find a few other sites that sell them, some of them at very good prices. Some sites have lots of info about them. Home depot has the basic ones but they didn't have any dimmables or 3ways or some higher end floods or real powerful lights. Pick a few up and try them.

I was confused with the web site pricing and call them up and they said the less expensive ones (which have the exact specs as the more expensive ones) are exactly the same as the name brands except it comes without the name on them in a white box. I purchased both and that seems to be right. They look and work exactly the same.

They are still not perfect like an incandescent lighting and the incandescent give you more choices in lighting options but this CFL stuff has come a looong way. GE makes a good CFL bulb that is a soft white light and it is almost perfect and no one has noticed the difference in my house in the main bathroom and the bulb is exposed. IMO it is better looking then the IC that was in there. It is an excellent light but it is almost $8 for a 60-watt bulb. You can get a less expensive one in the $1.00 - $5.00 range. You need to pick bulbs with the specs and go with that. Again not perfect but worth it. I would seek out CFLs that have a 2700K temp (color) and produce the wattage you need. The dimmables and 3ways work but are costly, try the standard ones first.

The CFL floods come on instantly but take a minute to come up to full brightness when they are cold. For my office, it does not matter because they are on all day but when you walk into the home theater and hit the lights it seem a little dark for the first minute or so. The dimmables work but have some memory lag when they are on for a while. But I know the kids will have the lights on for hours this has savings all over it. That said they are not as responsive as the classic IC but IMO it is worth it the small hassle. The savings is huge and the bulbs more then pay for themselves (and then some) in the first year, no question. Not to mention the heat factor.... think about the heat 37 85-watt floodlights put out and the AC required removing the heat. These things have reduced my entire lower level lighting load from 2500watts to 620 and I have brighter light now then before, not to mention the reduced heat produced and the longevity of the bulb. It is not as soft as I would like it but after a week you don't even notice it, it is only when you compare next to each other that you pick up the differences.

The floods are not cheap but on the net I found some in the $4-5 range for the standard R30 and R40 fixtures but some of the dimmables can run upwards of 20 bucks depending on what you like.

I hope to have my entire house converted in the next year but right now I have about 40% or so with these.

The perfect applications for these are lights that are on most of the time...the savings will be dramatic. In our laundry/mud room, which seems to be active I replaced a fixture that had 2, 75 watt IC bulbs with 2 23 watt CFL curly bulbs that put out the same light as 100 watt bulbs. It is noticeably brighter and you cannot tell the difference by looking at the fixture (it has a glass dome on it) and saves me about: 20-30 bucks per year on this single light fixture. Count your light bulbs and it adds up fast. This does not count the heating from these either.

Long term I think these will take over the market until even lower power LCD lighting moves in and starts the process over. But for now having kids that leave the lights on and walk away (I swear all I do is walk around the house and turn off lights) at least I will not feel that bad.

I tell you who could really benefit from these is the Ernie Bock estate, in the summer he must have a 1000 lights on…it looks like a big hotel, you might have seen it while taking the Chappy Ferry at night.

[UserRemoved1]

Wow Jim wicked funny you posted this. I am in the midst of a whole house conversion to fluorescent and just got the rest of the bulbs today. I thought and still think the same way as you posted. The newer small size bulbs are pisser for ceiling fixtures etc. I am waiting to see the National Grid bill next month with just half the house done. I think I'll save about $30 a month on electricity and maybe more. My house is a 3200 sq ft colonial with ALOT of lights in it. We have been wicked satisfied with the quality of the lights, especially for places like halls and closets etc that get used all the time. I did the downstairs bathroom which we wanted to see before we did the upstairs and the light is a little bit less, but two 100w fluro lights use 48 watts of electricity where 2 100 watt bulbs which were in there have a total of 200... 1/4 the electricity is worth the drop in light as it's more than acceptable. Lots of green in the lights though on the cheap one's so you have to watch out. Keep us posted how you do on the bills.

[Mr. Sandman]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

Lots of green in the lights though on the cheap one's so you have to watch out.

I agree, I have a few of the really cheap ones too and they tend to be a bit greenish but they do make a few that are very close to IC.... I had another deliver today as well. When I get the entire house done I will monitor the bill for the same month. I want to see what the lower level feels like when it is all done with this lighting. When you add it up the energy savings is very impressive...for closets you can beat the bright white bulbs, the 100 watt bulbs put don't even get warm. The ballast gets a little warm but nothing like a 50 watt halogen or even a 40 watt IC

In the master bath we have this stupid fixture that has 4 of these halogen or Xeon bulbs that I swear you could toast bread with. It is like the sun when you turn it on. They only last a few months then they burn out, and they are very costly. I want to rip out the entire fixture and replace it with a high end CFL set up.

Also, I am thinking of replacing some of the outdoor lighting too. I came home the other night and I thought my house was on fire they had so many lights on. I went over to the meter and the dial looked like a blur it was ready to take off thru the glass.

[Swimmer]

Thanks for the extensive post. I have been thinking along these lines but had yet to do any research. Thanks Sandman for solving that end of it.

[UserRemoved1]

Jim we took the cheapies and put them in all the closet fixtures and anything that didn't get used all the time, figuring we'd still save on electricity and get decent light in the closets, hallways, washroom, basement etc. All of the bedrooms have ceiling fans in them and I too could see the meter spinning with 240 watts of power on each one plus the fan...now it's 96 watts and that's a pretty major improvement just for one fixture....and like you say the bulbs look pretty decent not stupidly huge like the old one's did. I was surprised at some of the wattages in some of the fixtures. Some even got a net increase in light, we used one bulb in the kitchen eating area that gave us significantly more light we were both impressed and went from 100 to 23 watts.

[Vectorfisher]

Jim I would hate to see your electric bill if you are figuring on saving $ 1000.00 a year, heck I think we only pay $ 1500.00 total a year

[Slingah]

thanks for the info sandman

[UserRemoved1]

Hey Jim I just got the latest bill from National Grid. The average of the bills from the last two Decembers are 1100 kwh per month. This months bill was 880 kwh so I saved 220 kwh...granted yes the boiler hasn't been running as much because of the warm days but it's still a pretty significant savings. I saved $9.59 in the delivery charges and $23.58 in the generation charge for a total of $33.17 savings. Not bad for the first month!