Do energy saving bulbs make a difference?

sparkeee said:
they use less electricity which is good for the environment,but they cost a lot so the savings to you on the electricity are negated by the initial cost.
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Assuming you use the light for an average of 4 hours a day (not unrealistic in a hall or even a living room), a 100 watt bulb would use 146 units of electricity over a year at a cost of 18.6c per unit or a total cost of €27.15. A cfl bulb would be roughly 1/5 of that or €5.43, saving €21.72.

Given that they cost €5-10, if the cfl is used for an average of 1-2 hours it makes back the cost in a year.
 
There is one big advantage to the long life bulb, it's great in places that are awkward to reach. Also good for rooms that you have the light on for a long time. I cannot judge their cost effectiveness, but I do know that lights in general use very little electricity and dryers and electric heaters are tremendous users of electricity. That's where you will make savings. Is the dryer on needlessly, can you dry clothes in a spare room/shed etc. To give you an idea of how much they use electricity turn off everything in the house and put on the dryer and see the meter spin.
 
j26 said:
Given that they cost €5-10, if the cfl is used for an average of 1-2 hours it makes back the cost in a year.
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When working out the efficiency of CFL's vs Filament bulbs you also have to take into account the heat give out by both. 'In theory' during winter months the heat from a filament bulb, will help reduce the energy required by your heating system bring a room to it's required temperature. As this is much harder value to quantify, most calculations don’t it into account, so the savings over all are not as great as they first seem.
 
j26 said:
Assuming you use the light for an average of 4 hours a day (not unrealistic in a hall or even a living room), a 100 watt bulb would use 146 units of electricity over a year at a cost of 18.6c per unit or a total cost of €27.15.
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You presuppose that people will use a 100W bulb. Many people would find that too bright/harsh even for common areas like halls and landings.
 
I have replaced 5 megaman 11 watt Gu 10's in 2 years. Just in hall and landing area and not on a grat deal. At 12euro a pop they are expensive. Have I got the value from them. Probably not!
 
wigster said:
At 12euro a pop they are expensive. Have I got the value from them. Probably not!
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We have a place in Florida, and boy do they know how to charge for electricity over there. Anyway, done an energy audit over there in September and replaced all the bulbs with CFL's. Can by a 6 pack of GE CFL's 23watt=100 for about $12 in Wal-Mart, and of course there made in the same place as we buy ours over here, China. Another case of Rip-off Republic.
 
ClubMan said:
You presuppose that people will use a 100W bulb. Many people would find that too bright/harsh even for common areas like halls and landings.
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Feel free to recalculate on lower wattages - the 5-1 ratio will still hold approximately true, so the payback period will be longer, but for bulbs that are used for a long time every day (e.g. a table lamp in a living room running a 11w cfl vs a 60w incandescent) it will still be relatively short.

I have some cfl's going back about 7 years - they've paid for themselves many times over.
 
I think CFLs are worth it overall. (I haven't had any bad experiences with shorter-than-advertised lifetimes). To the poster who asked about exterior enclosed lights and bathroom ceiling lights -- don't know about yours but behind the removable glass bowls/covers all of my lights in those areas have normal sockets and bulbs. I changed them all for CFLs where appropriate. That is, I wouldn't dream of ever putting a CFL in a bathroom -- my guests don't want to fumble around in the half-dark for the half minute or so it takes them to brighten acceptably. I'll change them the minute someone invents the "instantly on" CFL (and I certainly won't thank any politician who makes me do it before then).

In hallways, porches etc. I have switched completely to CFLs. I don't care how long they take to come on -- I just leave them on most of the time. Yes, bit of a waste, but the cost of electricity for lighting just isn't that much ... now I can have them on for 20hrs a day (and I do) for the cost of 4 hrs! Bottom line is that domestic electric lighting is just not that big a user of power.

Yes, we've all heard those stories about how the energy saved from CFLs could light thousands of homes for a year, just like switching off your standby devices. Quite apart from the "for a year" bit makes no sense because you are then comparing power with energy, it just goes to show how utterly tiny a few thousand homes is compared to our overall energy consumption. The latest I see is Sky claiming (on the "Welcome to Sky channel") that the new auto-standby feature on their boxes will save enough power to light Birmingham. Woo hoo! ... more utterly devious meaningless numbers.

My other favourite is "Black Google" ... the "about" text claims a potential global saving of "750 Megawatt hours per year". Woo hoo x 10!!! So let's convert that from perverse power units (MWh/year !) into more normal ones: it's 85 kilowatts... in other words if only every last person on the planet could be persuaded to use this software application (and its assumption about computer display technology are correct) we could save enough to power, oh, maybe forty energy-conscious households. That's a whopping 0.000004% of global electricity demand. On the other hand, since 99% of people will never hear of Black Google, it's grossly over-generous.

Call me cynical.
 
>> Call me cynical.

You're so cynical!


>> My other favourite is "Black Google"

Seriously this is the best thing I have seen in a while. I love it! Great for the eyes.
 
ClubMan said:
You mean the high energy costs in the USA?
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No, I should of made myself more clear. I meant the price of CFL's over here in Ireland....a complete rip-off, and yes the cost of electricity in Florida is very expensive.
 
minkydog said:
No, I should of made myself more clear. I meant the price of CFL's over here in Ireland....a complete rip-off, and yes the cost of electricity in Florida is very expensive.
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You need more CFLs. It is obvious that you do not see things clearly.
 
dub_nerd said:
My other favourite is "Black Google" ... the "about" text claims a potential global saving of "750 Megawatt hours per year".
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That might have been true a number of years ago, but as Google stated on their [broken link removed] during Earth Hour last year, it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display.
Leo
 
Leo said:
That might have been true a number of years ago, but as Google stated on their [broken link removed] during Earth Hour last year, it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display.
Leo
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That's what I suspected -- IIRC an LCD blocks out the backlight by changing polarisation of the pixels, not switching off the light, unless they've gotten a lot cleverer.

Anyway, even if they were right it's a derisory saving. Not to worry, Boussard's Polywell Fusor will be cracked soon and electricity will be free.
 
Thanks for all the replies. We have being very carefull with esb usage since the last bill.
We have replaced all light bulbs with low energy saving bulbs. Turned off anything not in use. We have also insulated the attic and I have put up heavy lined curtains in all rooms including over the front door and this has made a massive difference.

Today I received my esb bill. My last bill was 430 euro. ( you wonder why we have made so many changes)
Todays bill was for 350 euro but I realised it was an estimated bill so I went outside and read the meter. I rang esb with new figures and was told that a revised bill of 250 euro would be sent out. Can you believe 100 euro in the difference.
I am sure we have made some difference with cutting back.
 
gailey said:
Todays bill was for 350 euro but I realised it was an estimated bill so I went outside and read the meter. I rang esb with new figures and was told that a revised bill of 250 euro would be sent out. Can you believe 100 euro in the difference.
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Congrats! Thats 50 euro a month. But u will be surprised how much more you will save as you go along. Please keep us posted about your efforts and savings!
 
One of our's went last night. 18w and in place about 7 years. The only spare I had was a 60w ordinary one. This is much brighter.
 

That's a difference of near €200 (430 versus 250)
 
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