I don’t care if you believe global warming is happening, or if you think it can’t be stopped. Everybody likes saving money, and CF bulbs do just that. If you’re worried about the mercury in the bulb, know that an incandescent bulb requires more electricity — which means more mercury gets spewed out of the coal-fired power plant’s smokestack than is in the CF bulb.
I know, they aren’t great for every application… although there is a nice CF review page that can help you decide which CF is right for your special (dim/3-way/outdoor/etc) application.
A right wing blog started this? But I thought only liberals cared about the environment! Apparently not; some conservatives would like to conserve. That’s great news though — it means maybe we’ll elect leaders who aren’t so interested in redlining environmental initiatives at G8 summits. If you’re interested, OneBillionBulbs.com is the creation of Pajamas Media, a right wing blog.
In the mean time, I encourage you to check the site out, register, and both
(a) record which CF bulb changes you’ve already made
(b) see if you can find some more opportunities to change incandescent to CF.
Finally, check out this nifty graphic, updated in real time:
Wouldn’t it be neato if it appeared on the top of BMG‘s right margin for a week or three?
at the moment:
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NH: 670.91% *
MA: 332.55%
VT: 209.33%
NM: 135.11%
AZ: 131.65%
ME: 107.21%
CT: 104.28%
OR: 103.63%
CO: 100.01%
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Mass also has signed up the most actual bulbs changed — more than NY, CA, TX, etc.
* Yesterday, I seem to recall them to be just a hair over 100%. It’d be a shame if people aren’t being truthful on something as non-statistically significant as this…
For too long I’ve been urging people to buy these and not actually buying them. Granted, my mother is the person who traditionally buys bulbs in my house, but I can splurge for one or two for the rooms we often use light bulbs.
And I’ll also say a word to mum about house-wide changes.
True value was selling the power savers at less tahn a buck apieve this past spring. I bought eight. Some other store was doing the same thing. The real high lumen ones put out a nice bright light and I think they only use 40watts. The lesser lumen lights aren’t bad and they use only 15 watts.
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Using them is common sense, not a political issue.
But when you’re used to living on about 40-50 dollars a week (which is what I’ve done most of the past 2 years), replacing things that aren’t broken is “splurging.”
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I guess one of the fun things about never having to be back on campus again is the fact that I’ll be able to get a job – and therefore “splurging” will hopefully take on a new meaning, like buying a wii or something =p
…they also have their limitations.
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We use them in many lamps which remain on for a long period of time. But not in lamps that will be on for only a short period of time. Why? Because they take a fairly long time to come to full brightness, particularly in cold environments. We put one in our unheated garage during winter, and it took forever (seemingly) to come to full brightness. Since the light would be only on for short periods of time (generally to take the trash out to the trash barrels) it seemed that it was silly not to use an incandescent bulb there.
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Moreover, most models of CF bulbs don’t work well with dimmers. That is, they don’t dim–they are either all off or all on. We got some bulbs directly from a CF manufacturer that were purported to dim, but they didn’t.
Issues that may make CFs unsuitable for some applications are, light quality (including behavior at low temperatures), dimmers, and size.
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By each of these measure’s today’s CFs are better than those of the year before, making them more sutable for more uses in more places.
It’s true, “off the shelf” CF bulbs — the first one grabbed — may not meet your specific needs. Then again, neither will the first incandescent bulb you buy.
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There are CF bulbs which do perform well for * cold * dimming * 3-way * enclosed sconces
If you’ve got one of those four applications, make sure you buy a bulb that meets that need. Furthermore, be cognizant of the color of the bulb: does it shine cool (bluish, like office lights) or warm (reddish, like natural light). They both have their uses, but putting the wrong temperature CF bulb is just as bad an idea as putting the wrong temperature incandescent bulb.
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So, choose the right CF bulb, just like you’d choose the right incandescent bulb, and you’ll have no problem, not even in the vast vunderland that is Deutschland.
…I’m referring to use in our house in the US.
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Oddly enough, our cost for “Strom” (electricity) in Germany is much less than the US. The apartment is much smaller, though, and has far fewer lighting fixtures.
have those heavy metal blinds that are built kindasorta outside the windows? I found those to be one of my favorite characteristic of houses there. Just as cool as an AC at zero cost.
…pronounced “shalasieren” (phonetic). It’s a French word, pronounced weirdly. Ours are made of a plastic, though, not metal.
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One odd thing is that they interlock so well that, if you close them completely, and close the door to the room, the room is so completely dark that it is impossible to see anything. If you don’t close them completely, there are slits between the slats that allow some to filter through.
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The walls of the building are all made of bricks shaped like cinder blocks (8 by 8 by 16, and even the interior walls) and that allows them to be mounted in the exterior walls. We have seen some advertisements for them in the US, but they would require some retrofitting of American houses–boxes above the windows in which they would be mounted.
I would always be out at nightclubs until strange hours every night, so I could always shut them in the middle of the day and nap in complete darkness.
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When I first was in Germany I thought they were tacky, but I learned to love them. That’s something I’d love to see in America.
…in the Italian style. Get up early, and open up all of the windows to let the cool air in. Close the windows as it gets warm outside, and lower the Jalousies on the sunny side of the house, and raise the Jalousies on the shady side of the house.
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Manipulate the raising and lowering as the sun goes from one side of the house to the other.
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It really is quite effective in maintaining a comfortable interior. Like most of northern Europe, we have fans, but no air conditioning.
and the whole house stayed a comfortable temperature despite it being 90-100 degrees out every day. It really opened my eyes to the shocking waste of American Air Conditioner Culture.
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Of course…that was in Kassel…what’s the climate like in München? I’m looking at that as a possibility for a full semester if I decide not to go back to Kassel.
Munich is fairly far from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, so its climate isn’t moderated by either. It’s close to the Alps, and its climate is influenced by them.
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We’ve been going to Munich every summer since 1985, and went a few years at Christmas time starting in 1998. When we first started going in the summers, it was fairly rainy and cool, rarely getting out of the low 70s (temps in Fahrenheit) but in more recent years it became far less rainy and much warmer–it oftentimes got into the 90s. But, with the high elevation and low humidity, it was still comfortable sitting out on the patio.
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When we started going around Christmas time (1998), it was very cold (well below 32), and the elevation and the low humidity made it feel even colder. In more recent years it was much warmer. When we were there a few weeks ago (weeks bridging April and May) it was quite warm.
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Munich’s Uni is quite interesting (would you be studying there, or to the Technische Hochschule?). It straddles a major roadway that is oftentimes used as a parade route. It’s close to the Altstadt, and also to Schwabing.
I’ve narrowed it down to Kassel, Marburg or Frankfurt…the Umass System has a partnership with Hessen, so It’s going to have to be in there.
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I will, however, be making plenty of day/weekend trips there. I’ll even be there in the summer, so maybe next year I’ll drop by to say hi.
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Haha.
…what about halogen bulbs? They seem to require far less power than incondescent bulbs to produce essentially the same lumen level, and they seemingly last forever (providing the transformer doesn’t crap out). And they work with dimmers quite effectively. The color of the light largely depends on the color of the lens covering the bulb, not so much the color of the bulb itself.
because, after all, they have to get to about 250 Celsius to operate correctly.
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They’ve gotten better though. According to The Great Internet Light Bulb Book,
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So, more efficient than incandescent, not as efficient as CF bulbs.
with the improvements made in CFs lately. we’ve been dedicated to using them as much as possible, but man, were some of the earlier ones nasty! bluish, or reddish, with noticible flicker. ugh! HOWEVER! i just tried a new round of the latest, and am i ever pleased. for the first time in my long use of CLs, i cannot tell that i’m not using an incandescent.
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i’m happy to hear that halogen info, stomv. is all the efficiency in the newer bulb itself, or is there something about the lamp too that also had to be upgraded? i’m wondering because i still have a few lingering halogen lamps that i’d hate to have to replace.
I know that torchieres used to burn really hot, consuming lots of juice and they were a fire hazard due to their propensity to tip over or light the drapes on fire.
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But to be honest, I really don’t know. The light bulb itself should have a wattage — that’s how much electricity it uses. So, a 100W bulb, be it incandescent or halogen or CF, uses 1 kWh or electricity every 10 hours. Now, the CF bulbs use about 25% of the elec of a incandescent, so the “100 W CF bulbs” are 25W bulbs which give out as much light as a 100 W incandescent.
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Confusing, yes.
that fluorescent bulbs last up to 5 years!
Watts = amperage times voltage. Voltage is a constant at 110VAC. So when the voltage increases or decreases you are using more or less amperage. Amperage is your current draw or your power. Your circuit bearker or circuit breakers are rated by amperage. Your most common are 15 and 20 amps. When you pull more power/current than what it is rated at it trips the curcuit breaker/burns out the fuse.
Remember, all electrical circuits/appliances/loads are rated at a certain wattage. So if your voltage goes down your amperage goes up. That’s why brown outs are dangerous. Motors will begin to draw a lot more amperage when they reduce voltage in brown outs and it burns out the motors(mostly refrigerators, fans etc.)More amperage means a lot more heat.
with physics?
based on this entirely unscientific poll.
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We’re a reality based community — how about also being a results based community?
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Come on, pleeeeze. Be your best friend… Add it to the top of the right column. You know you want to.