We read about Daily Acts' Sustainability Tours in last Saturday's Chron and wound up being more intrigued by the fact that they give a compact fluorescent bulb to every person who attends.
The bulbs are part of the "One Bulb Revolution," a campaign to promote the replacement of regular light bulbs with energy-efficient flouresecent bulbs. (Fluorescent bulbs don't use heat to create light and are 4-6 times more efficient than incandescents.) According to Daily Acts, "over its lifetime, one compact fluorescent bulb prevents 1,000 - 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from heating the atmosphere." The "revolution" part of all this is that if we all replaced five of our high-use household incandescents with compact flourescents we'd collectively prevent "more than one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases" from entering the air.
The very word flourescent though can send our ears ringing with that annoying hum and our eyes blinking from that barely-detectable flicker.
Well I tried this, (Thanks Al)and they do indeed hum and sadly don't work with a dimmer. I think I'll stick with the variety whole foods carries; A regular incandescent which is somehow green.
Any non-humming compact fluorescent advice is much appreciated.
I have a couple of these with lights from IKEA. None of them hum or flicker.
I wish I could bring myself to use these throughout the house, but the color of the light they give off is too wierd for me. I like the natural spectrum bulbs.
There are several warm light fluorescents out there now. Check out this light bulb guide to find one. It's really helpful:
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=632&campaign=mts
Oops, the end of the link is:
.org/page.cfm?tagID=632&campaign=mts
Gaah, the hum is making me crazy! I don't have the heart to put old bulbs back that I replaced with CFLs but I might have to try Ikea. Thanks for the tip.
The light I use most is my desk lamp, but these kinds of bulbs are too heavy.
Have yet to find one that doesn't make food look like poo.
I just replaced some lightbulbs with CFLs in my condo bldg. Here is what I found...
1. Color:
Theoretically the CFLs rated 2700Kelvin are supposed to be in the same color spectrum as regular incandescents. That's not quite true - many bulbs rated 2700K gave off a bluish purple cast. However I finally found a brand that was INDISTINGUISHABLE from the 40Watt bulbs...
Liberty Lights. 5 Watt/250 Lumen output
(I've also seen "daylight spectrum" CFLs, too)
2. Brightness:
Based on the watt conversion, I felt that (across the board) CFLs are brighter than their Incandescent equivalents (based on manufacturer info). At the store, the chart said that a 9W CFL = 40W Incandescent. That was too bright - I had to go down to 5W CFL. Which means more energy savings!
3. Dimmers:
None of the fixtures I was dealing with are on dimmers but there are CFLs with ballasts that can accommodate dimmers.
I'm glad to hear about the full spectrum ones...
When I had my home office green business certified, I converted to the energy efficient bulbs. But I absolultely hate the light they cast...they make me feel unwell, like all flouresents do.
Turning off lights in empty rooms and using dimmers does help reduce energy usage. I'm a big fan of dimmers, partly because they are a compromise from using the compact flouresents.
I bought a couple of compact fluorescent bulbs from Ikea. I tried one with a lamp that was not on a dimmer. The bulb hummed.
Just some references if you're interested. Haven't tried them:
http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/
http://www.1000bulbs.com/category.php?category=14
Unfortunately, I think switching to CFLs (and finding ones you like) is a hit/miss situation.
I'm still looking for suitable CFL replacements for a few more fixtures in the condo. Since these fixtures are on 24-hours/day or all-night, I think it makes sense to replace them and realize more energy savings.
The lights in my apt are probably on a total 4-6 hours/day intermittently. So I haven't made the effort to switch them out, yet.
Yeah, I'm afraid this is the one place I just refuse to go green. Even the spirally Ikea fluorescent bulbs give weird, flat light that puts me in a bad mood, and i'm not nearly handsome enough to survive looking in the bathroom mirror in the morning under less-than-ideal light. I figure I'll just use my lights sparingly. Sorry environment, everything else I do, I do it for you.
JenPDX: So the Liberty Lights have a warm tone? Where did you find them? Can they be ordered online?
everyone should switch out their bulbs. you can save so much $$$ and also save the planet. you won't find too much of a noticeable difference between the quality of light. you should give it a try!
Beeswax: I did lots of research online, but there happens to be the mother of all light-bulb stores 2-miles from me.
Sunlan
3901 North Mississippi Avenue
Portland, OR 97227-1162
Tel: (503) 281-0453
Fax: (503) 281-3408
kay *AT* lightlady *DOT* com
Considering how much experimentation with different wattages/brands I did, Internet ordering wouldn't have worked well for me. Plus Sunlan's prices were equal if not better to all the online places (so I rode my bike and got to shop locally, too).
But yeah, of all the bulbs rated 2700K color temp - Liberty was the only one that was indistinguishable from incandescents. The rest were too bluish.
I bought some at Home Depot called n:vision soft white. They have different brightness levels, and the candle light version is almost identicle to a regular light bulb. They're really great. I totally understand those who hate fluorescent bulbs, I'm with you, but check these out. You can buy a single and see what you think. Besides helping the enviroment my electric bill was lower and I live in a studio apartment with only 7 lights. I can only imagine what a whole house would save.
I agree with saving the environment. But the fact of the matter is most CFLs don’t work with dimmers. That sucks. And no matter how much you talk about the color temperature of the bulb, it has nothing to do with the CRI!!!!! Look up the color rendering index for these bulbs and I think you will be very surprised at how crappy they really are. The quality of the light makes a huge difference as to how you feel in your apartment and how things look in your apartment. I constantly go into peoples apartments with CFLs and want to shoot myself. They are improving on CFLs all the time but right now, no doubt about it, the majority of them blow.
I agree with the recommendation of the Home Depot n:vision bulbs -- the light they give off is pretty darn close to the GE incandescents they replaced. i tried a no-name CF bulb from my local hardware store and it was god-awful (i mean, really really awful), but the n:vision bulbs are highly recommended. no hum, good light and pretty cheap to boot.
Like many of the posters here, I'm going to continue to use incandescent bulbs in most areas of my home, primarily because I like the ability to dim the light and create different moods. BUT there are some fixtures where I could use the mini twist fluorescents instead and as the incandescents expire I'll experiment with the fluorescents.
Free CFL's from Lowes!
I live in South Carolina, so don't know if this is offered nationally, but thought I'd let you all know in case it is and you can take advantage of it. Lowe's here is offering a mail-in rebate for the full purchase price on a quad package of one particular mini fluorescent twist bulb, the particular manufacturer I don't recall. Two deals per household, or 8 bulbs. Hey, since they're essentially *free* (except postage and sales tax), I figure it can't hurt to try them out! I've bought mine and tried them. They're not "warm" like incandescent, but they don't have that hum either.
sorry for the double post.
Just a reminder to folks that there are CFL's that are compatible with dimmer lights. I live in a rental where virtually all the fixtures are dimmer-operated, which is a drag, but this was a good resource for finding bulbs:
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=633&campaign=480&fixture=0&shape=0&feature1=1&brightness=0&color=0
Also, IKEA will recycle your CFL's for you.
In bigger rooms you can use half flourescent half normal and the light is still warm and you are still doing something good. We do this in rooms that have more than one light and I dont even notice it any more.
I agree that older energy savers gave weird light, but I just tried some 100 GE energy savers for $1/each (subsidized by W.Mass Electric), and they are great! They take about a minute to warm up to full brightness, but wow, once they do, superb! Excellent light -- I read a lot and am satisfied. I'm giving them away to friends as my part of a Green Christmas.
Thanks JenPDX- will try the new bulbs. My experience with florescents has been pretty negative so far.
I use the 7th Gen full spec incandescents- they do last longer than reg bulbs. We also have gone down on wattage whenever possible. I read somewhere on the interent that longer lasting bulbs are somewhat less energy efficient. Hmm....
Break the paradigm! Use LED bulbs instead of CFL....even greater savings and less toxic waste if/when they need replacement!
This site has some interesting choices:
http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bulbs/index.aspx
Cheers!
For a science project my daughter decided to see just how efficient the mini-twists are. We rigged up a board with two light sockets, a switch and a power cord. We used an alligator style ammeter on one of the power cord wires. We measured the amp draw for a Westinghouse 100W incandescent bulb rated at 1710 lumens and a 1,000 hr life. It used a continuous .8 amps which if multiplied by 120 Volts comes to 96 watts. We then measured a Westinghouse mini-twist that was supposed to use 27W and equal a 100W incandescent. It was rated at 1750 lumens and a 10,000 hour life. It initially used .9 amps and after a 3 minute warm up, pulled 1.2 amps continuously. 1.2 amps times 120 volts is 144 watts. This is 5 times more energy consumption than its advertised 27 watts. We switched bulbs from one socket to another with no change. We tried several other brands of bulbs with similar results. We tested them for an hour to ensure they had ample time to warm up but none of this changed the indication that the mini-twist bulb is actually less efficient than a regular incandescent bulb. I e-mailed Westinghouse for an explanation but have received no reply. Why are we seeing these results?
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