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Learning About Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

By Solar energy | April 10, 2009

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Learning About Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

We are still trying to reduce our monthly kilowatt-hour consumption before we bite the bullet and install solar electric energy.

Installing Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) reduces the amount of energy your home uses so most people make the switch to CFLs.

Here’s what the EnergyStar site says about CFLs:

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Currently, we are living with a mix of incandescent and CFLs because it just doesn’t make sense to me to throw out a perfectly working incandescent light bulb. As our incandescents die out, we replace them with CFLs.

Our first CFL came from our energy provider, who gives one CFL (not an entire box) to each customer who asks. We used that one to replace the light over the stove as that light stays on more than any other in the house.

Last weekend we purchased our first boxes of CFLs from our local Walmart Store. As I recall now, Walmart offered a GE brand of CFL and the Walmart store brand of CFL.

Since we are currently working our way up the CFL learning curve, we purchased the lesser expensive Walmart brand. We installed the new 100-Watt equivalent CFLs in the walk-in closet to make that dark spot brighter for those of us who must choose clothing early in the morning, before the caffeine kicks in.

When we flipped the switch on, I learned there’s a reason CFLs are labeled either “warm white,” “cool white,” or“daylight.”

The “warm white” CFLs give off a light that is more yellow. I really don’t like the yellow light although it’s fine for the closet, being less harsh than the other two choices.

Noli Control Systems describes “cool white” this way:

Cool White bulbs are preferred in many applications because the light they output makes items illuminated appear crisper.  Cool White is often preferred in bathrooms and other task areas.  They are also great for reading.

About “Daylight” Noli says:

Daylight bulbs are often preferred for photography, painting,  or other tasks that require a true color representation of the objects being illuminated. They are also great for helping reduce the effects of Seasonal Disorder disease since they give the effect of summer time sun light.

I think I’m going with the “daylight” version in the rest of my house.

Cool white and daylight bulbs cost a teensy bit more than warm white CFLs. But after seeing the difference, I think they are worth the extra few pennies.

Do you use CFLs? Why or why not?

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Topics: Reducing energy use, Solar Home Energy Project | No Comments »

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