What Have we Done Already? (part 1: CF bulbs)

Okay, as I said in an earlier posting, I said I would be listing the few things we have done already to be more green. In this posting: Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

CF light bulbs use about 1/4 of the energy of regular incandescent bulbs.

So, a few years ago, I replaced all the bulbs in our house (and outside sockets!) with compact fluorescent bulbs, except the ones on dimmers, 3-way switches, and touch lamps. The electricity portion of our utility bill went from $60 to $52 a month. That's a real savings of 13%. Yearly, that means $96 in our pockets. I spent $8 a bulb (approximately) and there were about 10 of those bulbs for a total of $80. That means these bulbs paid for themselves in less than a year! Woo hoo!

Since that time, some companies have started shipping 3-way and dimmable CF bulbs. We will buy some of those in the future for those lamps fixtures that need them, and I'll report back to you how the eletricity bill changes.

But Edwin, aren't the regular bulbs so much cheaper that CF isn't even worth it?

Well, a regular 100w incandescent bulb costs anywhere from $1.00 on special to $1.50, and the equivalent 23w CF bulb costs about $8, so it seems like it may be true. (A 23w CF bulb puts out about the same amount of light as a 100w regular bulb.)

However, the cool part about these CF bulbs is that their lifespan is typically longer than those of regular incandescent bulbs. A CF bulb can last anywhere from 6 to 15 times as long as an incandescent bulb, depending on its usage pattern. So now multiply the cost of a regular bulb by 6 to calculate how much you have to spend on regular bulbs during the lifespan of a CF bulb, and now you see that the regular bulbs now cost anywhere from $6 to $9... But wait a sec, that's practically the same price as a CF bulb!

The question is, is that true? Do they really last longer. Well, I can tell you that of the 10 CF bulbs, I've had to replace 3 of them so far. They may have been faulty, and we may have switched them on and off too often or left them on for too short a time. The other ones are 5 years old now and are still working normally.

So, same price, but much less electricity usage and therefore money in our pockets. Sounds like a winner to me. Everyone should switch to CF bulbs where-ever possible.

More about CF bulbs:

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/greenpicks/94/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-cfls-but-were-afraid-to-ask.html
http://18seconds.org/18seconds/

Now the next step after CF bulbs is LED bulbs. However, they are much more expensive per usage hour than CF bulbs are, even factoring in that they use only 90% less energy than regular incandescent bulbs and 60% less energy than even CF bulbs and last 5 to 10 times longer than CF bulbs and about 30 to 150 times longer than regular incandescent bulbs.

Right now, the replacement for a regular 100w bulb still costs about $98. Multiply the cost of a regular bulb ($1.50) by 30 and you get $45. That means it is still cheaper to put in incandescents than LED bulbs, let alone the CF bulbs.

However, the prices are coming down. I think in a few years, it will reach the "tipping point" where it will be more economical to put in long lasting LEDs than to put in CF bulbs. That point just hasn't been reached yet.