Do you use floresent lighting?

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Even with all the things I've done, my bill has gone higher not lower. [/QUOTE]

Spinner, Have you had the electric service repairperson out to test your meter? It may be faulty - it was found ours was after we bought the house but hadn't moved over...nothing on but the meter still went around!

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We prefer not to use them even if they may save a little bit of electricity, due to the the mercury used to make them.

If you do choose to use them, know how to properly dispose them and what to do in case of one breaking.

http://www.epa.gov/earlink1/mercury/spills/index.htm

http://www.lamprecycle.org/

http://earth911.org/ put in what you need recycled/disposed of and your zip to find nearest local facility.

http://www.p2pays.org/mercury/lights.asp


Reese

I build flourescent/L.E.D. fixtures. This is one I use in my kitchen area..

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Diogenes' Philosophy..
"The gods gave man an easy life, but man has complicated it by itching for luxuries."

I hate the LED things evan worse then Floro! They throw out more shadow then light. When we first had a cabin on our place, we ran solar for lights. We tried led, even the ones with 12 or more LEDS in a bulb, and it was still dark. We switched over to Incandecent 12v bulbs and could see again. I've gotten two of those worthless LED flashlights as gifts. I ended up taking the bulbs out and replacing them with real bulbs.
My wife's dad has them in his house for night lights - some "white" some red. I can see better in the dark, then with them on. HATE 'EM, HATE 'EM, HATE 'EM!

I reflect the L.E.D.'s off of a white surface. Takes the shadow effect away..

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Diogenes' Philosophy..
"The gods gave man an easy life, but man has complicated it by itching for luxuries."

We switched about 15 years ago, before it was fashionable, or many folks knew about it.
They use about one quarter the electricity that incandescents use.
They last a long time. We like them.
Everyone ought to use what they like.
I especially like them over my work bench, out in the shop.
Buy 'em, if ya like 'em.

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Old John

They do get hot in use. Don't use them in recessed or 'can' fixtures as they hold the heat in and destroy the ballast portion of the bulb.

You have to really check power usage of the 4ft or 8ft floresent fixture(FF) to determine if its going to save you and "Wattage". Example here--I put in 6 8ft FF in my on grid shop 8 years ago, A couple years ago I decided to check one to see what it was drawing-----300 watts per fixture. I was Shocked. They are wired 2 fixtures per switch, so I put pull chain switches on a few so I could only use the one fixture over the area I was working.


Rambler--------I bought alot of CF's bulbs and the Cheaper ones seem to not be as bright as stated, after I got my Kill-a-watt meter I found out why-----the cheaper ones I bought were drawing app 1/2 of what was stated(13 watts stated only drawing 7 watts) therefore I figured it was app 1/2 the brightness as was stated(60 was more like a 30). The Expensive ones checked real close to what was stated on the box and were alot brighter. To use them, I would just use 2 of the cheaper ones where I could(fixtures that use more than one bulb) works good.

For you that have a real high electric bill even though you are trying hard to keep it down, you need to get a Kill-a-watt meter to check out what things are costing you to run. In My on Grid shop I had a older--nice looking--upright freezer, it was costing me $23 a month to run, I gave it away QUICK, my new Wal*Mart freezer cost me $3 per month to run(will pay for its self in one year). My fridge is costing me $16 per month, have not replaced it yet, but each month I feel I am waisting money. DON'T DO THIS unless you have experience---I even went into my breaker box and made a "Hook-up" for my killawatt meter so I could check Each 120 volt circuit/breaker that I felt needed to be checked to see what things were costing me.

we are changing to cf as the other bulbs burn out. i have replaced all the bulbs in lights we use the most.

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Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15. - Ronald Reagan

We have CF in most places. I find it's plenty bright; those who say they aren't bright might be using too low of a wattage for the given situation. We use them for ceiling mounted room lights, for lamps on tables beside the sofa (reading lights), in the bathroom over the sink (those three are too bright, need to take one out or put in lower wattage).

The ONLY place we don't use CF is in lights that are on a dimmer switch.

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Eating the dream

We have lots of CFLs, started using them in 1989, the first one lasted over 7 years. I find that some of the cheapest ones don't last as well as better ones. Make sure they are screwed in tight--recheck once in awhile. An electrician I know says that most complaints he gets about short life of CFLs is due to being slightly loose in the socket, causing variations in power to the bulb.

Mercury in CFLs: A CFL contains less mercury than a coal burning power plant would put in the air when the power plant produces the electricity to power an incandescent bulb of equal output of light to the CFL. Ini other words, do you want your mercury in the air or in an easily recycled CFL? Of course there will still be some mercury in the air if it is coalpowered, but much less. And you do recycle your incandescent ("regular") bulbs, too, of course, due to the lead solder in the base of the bulb?

We are using some LEDs in the house and shop, and I find that some of the warm white ones have a pretty good color light. Still expensive, but the cost is similar to what CFLs were 20 years ago--and look at inflation. Also, check into the newer cold cathod CFLs that are getting easier to find. They have warmer (redder or yellower) light, longer life, and can be dimmed by regular existing dimmer switches. They are still kind of expensive, though, but with the nicer light and longer life I will be trying some soon.

Interesting discovery:
We got a few LED bulbs (from http://www.superbrightleds.com/edison.html) and when measuring the power usage with my Kill-a-Watt I found that the meter used as much power as some of the LEDs did.
I tried the Model E27-W24 Wide Angle and the Model E27-W57, but the Model E27-WLX-1 White LED bulb in Warm White has a nicer (less blue) light colr, but has a very narrow beam.

I tried it in basically the same setup as you have them. I even tried them in a "heat lamp" type reflector. I experimented with different colors of reflectors (silver, white, blue, black, cream), and even tried to "diffuse" them inside a milk jug.
A big waste of money for us. Figured that if you can't see with them, then they ain't worth having.
The floro bulbs are better, but not by much. I forgot, we DO have some in the house in a ceiling fan, but rarely use the light. When those die, we will replace them with real light bulbs. Your mileage may vary......

The old kind of fluorescent lights don't save much on power. Switching them on and off can actually use more power in the long run.

Incandescent lights are the way to go. They are a fraction of the cost to run, and they last many times longer - in both ways, they are helping the environment. They give out good light, too. They are more expensive to buy, but they pay for themselves quickly with the power savings.

Compact fluorescents use only 20 per cent as much electricity to produce the same amount of light as a standard light globe, and they last about 10 times longer.

A 60 watt incandescent light is swapped for a 10 watt mini fluoro, a 100 watt incandescent is swapped for a 18 watt mini fluoro, etc. Large mini fluoros eg 20-26 watt may take a short time to come to full brightness.

In Australia, standard light globes will be phased out by 2009. They are already getting harder to find. Which is a good thing.

We use the compact flourescent bulbs. They are very good now, work in a regular incandescent bulb socket, and start right up (no wait and no blink).

All flourescent lights contain some small amount of mercury, so it is technically hazardous waste.

You might look into LED lighting as an alternative. 110 volt LED systems have come a long way in terms of output, but cost can still be high.

I am not that convinced our conversion has had that much of an impact on my electric bill, since most of the electricity used in a home is used by such things as electric water heaters, stoves, a/c and furnaces, washers, dryers, refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, and large tools like table saws, compressors, etc.

Now, were I to build a new home, I would make all lighting circuits separate and 12 volt, and use solar plus a battery plus a transformer off the grid to run the lights. The outlets would remain grid-powered 100 volt, for common appliance use. I think 12-volt LED lighting would be a remarkable savings over 110 volts.

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

Hi,
We use fluorescents or compact fluorescents nearly everywhere.
Even outside where it gets down to -20F.

I don't get all the negative comments on CF's and the quantity and quality of light. I think they are fine.

Here is a blind test done by Pop Mech mag that tested 7 CF's against incandescents for light quality. All 7 CF's scored better than the incandescent.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...html?series=15

More info on CF's:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...n.htm#Lighting

I figure that we save $117 per year anr 2300 lbs of CO2 emissions. All for an initial outlay of about 50 bucks and some power company coupons -- hard to beat!
http://www.builditsolar.com/Referenc...ion.htm#Lights

Gary

The only function I use the L.E.D.'s for is soft lighting stuff. (like not steppin' on the dog when going to the bathroom at nite) The pic I posted just gives enough light with the L.E.D.'s to get around and maybe get a glass of water. If I need big light, I fire up the flourescent in the middle. It's a 32 watt high output bulb that'll light up 2 rooms with ease.. Very bright..
~Don

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Diogenes' Philosophy..
"The gods gave man an easy life, but man has complicated it by itching for luxuries."

I don't get it either. I loathe regular fluorescent lights, the light is ugly and it makes me feel tired. Our CF's on the other hand, have a lovely warm light, just like incandescents.

Im in the process of building my house and there wont be a single incandecent or halogen put in. I am using a combination of CFL's and LED depdending on the situation. For LED I have found the ones labelled CREE (1w per LED) are generally fairly good quality and nice lumens/watt.

-Mallow

I had put CF nearly everywhere, took some back out, in two 3 bulb lights put in 1 regular bulb. They simply were too slow to come on. I was in danger of spending my savings on medical bills caused by dim light. I still haven't found a cf that works well in cold. I'm tired of paying $7-8 a bulb & they still don't work. I could not tell any difference in in bill after spending $100 on CF's last December. However I did discover an unexpected benefit, in several fixtures they have paid for themselves easily, none have burned out in 10 months. We burned thru regular bulbs by the bushel(almost).

I use florescent bulbs over my aquariums which also light our primary rooms. When the 4' florescent bulbs get too dim for the reef aquarium they get moved to plant and tropical fish aquariums. Then to a palladium setup. Then to a four foot fixture in the workshop. We also have a couple of 18" florescent bulbs and a couple of spiral screw in ones.

In our new tiny cottage we're just using the 4' tank bulbs, same motion of start with the reef tank and then move to lesser tanks as they age. We are also using LEDs for minor lights like reading lights at night, night walking lights, etc. I don't think we'll have any of the smaller florescent bulbs or any incandescent.

One thing I don't like about florescent bulbs is the mercury although they're getting rid of that.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

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