Saving Energy W/ CFLs And Other Gadgets
 

I've been replacing the light bulbs in my house with CFLs (compact flourescent lights), now that they're fairly cheap ($7 for 4 at Home Depot), give "warm" light that approximates incandescent (2700K), and are small enough to fit in most light fixtures. Goal is to reduce our electricity bill and reduce the irritating "darn the light bulb is blown" moments.

Two questions -

Dmmable CFLs? About half the rooms have dimmer switches. Dimmable CFLs appear to be a newish thing, and are still quite expensive ($9-13/ea). Yikes. I'm debating whether to remove the dimmers so I can use regular CFLs, or whether to suck it up and spend appx $250 on the required number of dimmables. But first I need to find out how long the dimmables really last. I've heard if they are dimmed way way down, they have a short life. $10/ea for a 10,000 hour life is one thing, $10/ea for $4,000 is another. Any experience here?

Timer switches? Ideally I'd like to be able to flip a wall switch to light the room, and know that in 1-2 hours, if I've gone off and left the light on, it'll switch off by itself. Is there such a timer switch, that drops right in to replace a regular wall switch and supports dimming?

Motion detectors? Another option would be to install motion sensors so that the lights switch off when the room is empty. Again, anyone know of such a device that is a very easy retro-fit (don't want to re-wire the rooms)?

Thanks. Next chapter, when I debate whether to weatherstrip the leakiest of the old single-pane windows or have double-panel windows installed.

imer switches? Ideally I'd like to be able to flip a wall switch to light the room, and know that in 1-2 hours, if I've gone off and left the light on, it'll switch off by itself. Is there such a timer switch, that drops right in to replace a regular wall switch and supports dimming?

Motion detectors? Another option would be to install motion sensors so that the lights switch off when the room is empty. Again, anyone know of such a device that is a very easy retro-fit (don't want to re-wire the rooms)?

There are devices available (back to Home Depot!) that do these things. I experimented with one for my shop that would turn the lights off if it didn't detect motion for n minutes, but it wouldn't work well for my layout because I do most of my work at the opposite corner of the shop, and it couldn't 'see' me.

I don't know about dimmer switch support. I didn't know anyone still used those cheesey 70's artifacts...

There are motion sensors and I do know they are available at commercial electrical suppliers, since so many conference rooms have had them installed.

DImmers? Can't help you. I always thought flourescents with dimmers was a no-no!! Technological advances...ya gotta love it!!

CFLs still have about 15-20% efficiency- meaning only a 1/5th of the amps used actually go into creating light.
Still better than 5% efficiency incandescents though, which produce more heat than light. http://www.uwsp.edu/CNR/wcee/keep/Mod1/Unitall/ConservationTips.htm
More here:http://members.misty.com/don/lede.html


The Nichia company has recently gotten 113 lumens per watt with LED's, which will soon be a permanent replacement for the "light bulb" (as soon as they engineer them to stop working after x-hours;)).

In comparison, a 100watt bulb makes 17 lumens per watt.

The least expensive dimmable Flourescent bulbs I've seen are on Ebay. One particular seller has them on there often. I've been looking to replace the flood style that go into hi-hat type fixtures. They're not easy to find.

Also, some motion detection units are made to handle flourescent while many are supposedly not. It should state this clearly on the packaging. That said I took a plain ole standalone sensor and rigged it up to switch a light above my garage (with a CFL) and it's worked fine for a few years now.

Locally Costco has the best prices on these bulbs.

I have motion detector switches in all of my bathrooms.
They work great.
Home depot or Lowes. Not sure if the inductive load in a CFL is that high that they wouldn't work or shorten their life. I'll have to give that a try...

I put the motion detectors in my garage, because my wife and kids appear to be too lazy to turn the light off.

They worked perfectly. Until winter. then they never turned off....

I guess they aren't made for cold weather.

Just reviving this thread to say I'm very pleased with the CFLs that have replaced many of the incandescent bulbs in my house.

But the light fixtures on dimmers are still mostly using incandescents. Dimmable CFLs are still too expensive. I do have them in one room, work great, but it would cost $250 to do the rest.

I looked at the eBay auctions, but those sell a "ULA" brand of CFL which gets terrible reviews - supposedly noisy buzzing, high failure rate, uneven brightness.

So, still looking.

Have not used a "normal" light bulb in almost 10 years.

If you guys want to find a descent priced Flourescent bulb unit, look at IKEA. They have sold them for years at a very good price. At the price they sell the bulbs for, there is no excuse for EVERYBODY to switch over.

Joe A

I got tired of the light being left on in the pantry with the door wide open. A quick Home Depot run solved it. A motion detector that simply replaces the switch, and a spring loaded hinge keeps the door closed, but not latched. Just push on the door, and the light goes on.

It works so well, I've put a motion detector switch in the closet. The closet light is adjusted to stay on for a few minutes for when my wife can't decide what to wear.

As a side note, something to keep in mind is that the max-life of flourescent bulbs is probably not reached in most household applications.

They are usually rated for either 8 or 12 hours per cycle, and fail prior to their expected "life" from being turned on/off too many times before the rest of the bulb is worn out.

They are still the cheapest way to light a room...it's just something to think about. When your running in and out of the kitchen while cooking dinner, leaving them on is the way to go.

Matt,

Have always been told that with these type of lights that if you will been in that room more than once in an hour that its cheaper to just leave it on.

sounds reasonable to me...

Which brand of bulbs are you guys using. I switched to the pigtail type and could not stand the slow start and the color of the light. I still use them in my AV closet due to the low temp output and all my exterior dust to dawn lights but for main lighting I did not like them.

Are you happy with the slow start and color of light?

I don't like CFLs for every application.

My eyes tend to get "tired" more quickly in a room lit by florescent lights.

Some parts of the house (like the garage), are essentially heated by lights in the winter (when I'm in there).

That claim is due the the start up current. Mythbusters did an episode on this. If you are out of the room for longer than 0.5s it is cheaper to turn the light off. I.E. startup spike is not that big or that long.

I use CFLs most everywhere in my house. But only because of the color temps available.

I saw that episode as well, but I think they were only looking at the current spike and electrical usage, not the shortening of the lifespan of the light bulb which mschuep is referring to.

I've replaced a few of my bulbs with them. The 60w equivalent ones were great, but the 100w equivalent bulbs had a 2-4 minute start up time where they were fairly dim and annoying. Not sure of the brands so it might have just been that specific brand of bulbs.

Yes, separate issue, thanks Tim. :)

The next generation of lighting will be LEDs. Coming soon to a lighting store near you!!