It Works For Me - Fluorescent Lighting!
Little by little, I am swaying my husband over to "my" way of thinking - the economical, penny-pinching, environmentally conscious (working on it) mode of thought. And, it is WORKING!
Two weeks ago, Scott came home with a bag from Lowe's. In it, he had enough light bulbs to replace about 75% of our lights! They weren't just ANY bulb, though - they were fluorescent bulbs.
Here's what I love about fluorescent lights...
1. They aren't just those funky spirally bulbs anymore. They are frosted, domed, spotlights, dimmed, tinted - whatever you want and LOOK LIKE REGULAR BULBS!
2. They use a fraction of electricity that a standard bulb uses. For instance, we replaced 3 60-watt bulbs in a ceiling fan (180 total watts) with three fluorescent bulbs. The total energy usage for the new ones? 38 watts. TOTAL. Wow. A fifth of the original usage!
Now, there are a couple of things we've had to get used to because of the bulbs...
1. Think stadium lighting. Sometimes it takes a minute for them to get warmed up and fully "on". This is probably why we haven't replaced the bulbs around our mirror in the bathroom. I am only slightly impatient...
2. The price. Yeah, the upfront cost can scare you a bit, but remember...fluorescents not only use an itty bitty amount of electricity, they also last for something insane like 10,000 hours. You'll buy less of them! It was a bit of sticker shock to do so many bulbs all at once, but if you did just a few at a time, or a room at a time, you probably wouldn't feel the money oozing from your wallet so quickly!
That's what works for me! Visit Shannon's site to see more about Works For Me Wednesday!
Labels: Green, Works for Me Wednesday
posted by Judy @ 10:53 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I spent the big bucks on the spiral, name-brand fluorescent bulbs and had 2 of them burn out on me within a month! My regular bulbs are still burning (a couple have been up for more than a year now, so their time is coming). But, after losing my butt at the check-out line buying the 'long lasting' fluorescents, I'm a bit peeved about them burning out so quickly. Michael told me to take them back for a refund, but I didn't do it. And now, my bathroom is only 1/2 lit, and its very dark outside by my backdoor! Not sure I'll ever buy them again, but maybe.
Yeah, we have these too in most of our fixtures! On colder days, it takes a little longer for them to warm up - but I guess YOU don't have that problem.
Hi Jennifer!
I have heard that you have to be careful because there are some fixtures that will "eat" fluorescents...a gal on freecycle came and picked up my "old" bulbs because she couldn't use fluorescents in one of her living room circuits - they kept going out.
I haven't put them in my bathroom yet. The boys have them in their bathroom, and I'm not completely sold on the wait-for-them-to-warm-up thing...in the bathroom when I'm getting ready, I want LIGHT. NOW. So, we'll probably hang with the standard bulbs there.
Excellent. We use these in lots of our lamps, too. It's the little things that really do make a difference!
My husband is a big advocate of these bulbs as well! It really does save money in the long run!
I have never had them burn out quickly like some of you have. I would take it back for a replacement. We have all of our bulbs replaced and have for quite some time. I used to work for a power company about 12 years ago. We have used these bulbs since then. They have come down in price considerably then. You do eventually get used to the warm up period.
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