Rab Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 are energy saving lightbulbs better than normal lightbulbs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
film Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 yes ... they last 12 times longer then ordinary light bulbs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbjazzman Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 I found, speaking as someone who's eyes are extremely sensitive to light, that the natural light ones are the best from standpoint of dealing with eye strain and such. They might not be the best for cost or energy usage, but if you have problems with eye strain or are going plants indoors, they'd be worth a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonelyloser91 Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 Also some of the Lightbulbs have printed on there packages warnings saying that the lightbulbs may interfear with some things operating mainliny on the frequencys between .5 and 30mhz Some things like remotes and some communication equipment. I still use them in places around the house that the light stays on alot..like the porches and the garage and the bathrooms. Infact *Finds A Wrapper For GE 100 watt long life energy saveer bulb* It says and i quote "but may cause interference to radios,Televisions,wireless telephones, and remote controls. Avoid placing this product near these devices. If interference occurs, move product away from the device or plug either into a different outlet. Do not install this product maritime safety equipment or critical navigation or communication equipment operating between 0.45-30MHz" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted September 9, 2006 Author Share Posted September 9, 2006 ok, the nature of these lightbulbs is that they take some time to light up, that is a con of having these lights, in order to choose to convert to these lights there must be a substancial financial saving. a bulb costs about 2.50 (according to mom) a normal bulb is 0.18 (bought them before) a bulb is supposed to last 12 times as long as a normal bulb. 12x0.18=2.16 based on bulb costs, not worth it. each bulb is documented to save between 5.00 and 10.00 per year on electricity bills. assuming an average of 7.50 this results in an annual benefit of 7.16 per bulb. the apartment in question, has i think.... about 3 bulbs used often. = 21.48 question: is the reduced performance of the bulb, plus the effort of installation etc... worth that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 See this: o That is a lump of coal. No really. It is. People had to burn that poor, innocent lump of coal to generate electricity for your evil light-demanding ways. As they were, slowly and menacingly burning that magnificent lump of coal to sheer dust, CO2 was released into the atmosphere. CO2 is the MAIN CAUSE OF DEATH for uneducated 12 year old children in China. For just 1 dollar per month, you can adopt your own, sweet lump of coal. We will keep it amongst its coal friends, and try to get it some education so that it can improve its life. And as an added bonus, you will have saved an uneducated 12 year old kid in China. Please, think of the children. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BraytonAK Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 These bulbs are Compact Fluorescent, and they do save you money in the long run. With ordinary light bulbs you buy them by wattage. (Say, a 60 Watt bulb for a table lamp.) If you look at the lumens that one of these incandescent bulbs is rated at, you can then find an equally bright Compact Fluorescent bulb. (Many Compacts will say, "Same light as a 75 watt bulb!" Read the Lumens rating, not the wattage!) Something that can cause people to not like Compacts is that they "look funny", as in their color. Bulbs labeled as Cool, Daylight or Full Spectrum will have a color that leans towards the Blue end of the spectrum. The blue tint causes things to appear brighter than they are due to the way your eyes work. Bulbs labeled as Warm have a color leaning towards the red spectrum. This is most similar to the nice glow that regular light bulbs. See this link for a nice scale to show you the color temperature scale. (3,000° Kelvin is the warm end, 6,700° Kelvin is more towards the daylight color.) http://www.optomahometheater.com/howto/d3_9.asp In terms of saving energy, I recently saw a presentation on these at a state agency. Including the cost of the bulbs, factoring in the number of hours that they're on multiplied by the KWH fee from the utility company, they would save a ton of money. The ones I use are 13 Watts and are better than the 60-watt halogen bulbs I used to use. 60 watts or 13 watts? Since they save money, last longer than ordinary bulbs and come in colors similar to regular bulbs (meaning, same comfort level), there's really no reason not to use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BraytonAK Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 P.S. What would be even better is an LED bulb. That would save the most energy, last the longest and (if they make them this way) could have different colors built-in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garda Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/29/199228 As a read this thread, i knew i had heard something before. Am I one of only a few that still visits /. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 Nope. During workdays it's pretty much the second (first being the webmail) website I look at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted September 10, 2006 Author Share Posted September 10, 2006 no i dont bother with slashfot any more lol, i prefer the register. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 I only go to The Register for my (about) bi-weekly BOFH dose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freakish Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 I think that the best thing that you can go with is LEDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BraytonAK Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 I think that the best thing that you can go with is LEDs. I thought that, too, until I read up on them. Apparently Compact Fluorescents are more efficient at higher lumens than an LED. Apparently LEDs are efficient only at low power. Feed them more power and they don't get much brighter. The way I understand it is that (not technically, but this is how I remember it) you can feed an LED more and more power, but the brightness does not increase on a linear scale with energy input. However, a compact fluorescent will get brghter with more energy input, I believe almost exponentially. CF's seem to give waste energy at high power, though, at least in my experience. I have a bunch of 96 Watt CF's that light my fish tank. Too hot to touch. The 13 Watt CF' that light my bathroom and laundry room are cool to the touch, but they don't have to spread light through 130 gallons of water. LED nightlights are a good invention, if they have have efficient power supplies. Did you know that you waste more electricity with those things that you think are off? TV, VCR, DVD Player, Ink Jet printers, telephone chargers, microwaves, cable boxes, etc. If many of these things were truly off, they'd require an actual switch to turn them on. Apparently that's the next line of attack for energy wasters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 The UK wants a law saying "no standby buttons", but this is politics trying to solve an enginering problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kateweb Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 The UK wants a law saying "no standby buttons", but this is politics trying to solve an enginering problem. I hate it when politicians get involed in crap thay shouldent. Most I daresay are not enginers. when i want suff off i ushaly unplug it, with a few exaptions like my tv and ps1 i live on a laptop so i dont have to wory about keeping a monitor and tower plueg in i still have one but i never use it im allways on the move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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