Letters to the Editor
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Always, always, always complaints....
....something new comes along, and there are always complaints. Seat belts? 'oh, they'll wrinkle my Sears housedress'. Vaccines for deadly diseases? 'oh, the shot makes my arm sore and (fill in imagined horror story here).' Now a lightbulb that benefits the environment? 'oh, it's too bright/cold/flickery/headachey and it makes ME ME ME look just ICKY!' Oh, how sad for you, you obviously need all the help you can get in lookin' good! Well, guess what, no one really cares or notices how you look under any light - except yourself - and you're only going to get older and less good lookin' as time goes by. So get used to it. I'm sure scientists are feverishly working day and night to develop a nice warm light that will flatter your delicate complexion, just be patient.
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Christmas Tree Ornaments?
Are you insane? Putting thin lightbulbs on a Christmas tree in a house with kids?
This was good advice until that came up.
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They work for me.
We switched over to them about 6 months ago. I don't care about the earth (fuck the earth. thats my motto) but electric bill was just too high, and I'd read about these bulbs, figured the energy savings coupled with the lifespan made them an obvious choice IF the light looked good.
Put in the first one and was indeed surprised how blue the light seemed. I stuck it out for a couple of days and came to realize, that it wasn't that the CFL was so blue, as much as that regular bulbs were so yellow. Eventually I realized that to me the CFL's actually matched the light coming from outside.
I guess its depends on your sensitivity to light but we're all CFL's now.
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Pablo's Wrong About This
Do not simply crush old working incandescents. Instead, use them in places CFLs just won't work, or where their added efficiency isn't going to pay off.
For example, you have a hall closet with a light inside that goes on when the door is open. Typical operation is that you open the door, get what you want, and close the door, total elapsed time maybe 45 seconds. Bulb is lit a couple of hours a year, tops. The electricity saved by going to a CFL is minimal, while the on-off cycling will wear out a CFL very quickly compared to the same CFL in a long-duty-cycle application. Plus there's the turn-on wait.
OTOH, CFLs are great for bathrooms because when you stumble in during the wee small hours and fumble for the light switch, you're not blinded by the sudden glare.
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The really BIG problem with CFLs is the lack of good info on which ones to buy. The info we really want isn't on the package:
1) How much light, and what color, does the CFL really give?
2) How long will it really last?
3) How reliable are they?
4) Does it make electronic noise that will mess up radios, TVs, etc.?
5) How do they perform in cold weather?
6) What is the turn-on delay?
Right now CFL quality varies all over the place, which is why you see such varying reports of success or failure. There are many types made by lots of manufacturers so it's a shot-in-the-dark to find a good one.
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As always your mileage may vary
I guess one good thing being an early adopter is that the CFLs I bought years ago may have gone through a better quality control process. I replaced all of my lights with CFLs when they were first readily available (3 - 4 years ago ??) and I haven't had a failure yet.
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Don't use them in places where they'll be on less than 15 minutes
Using CFLs in closets and such where they are on for only a few minutes burns them out. I am about to put some in a fan-light fixture. It will be interesting to see how long they last.
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I use candles
Rendered from the fat of Republicans.
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they still look bad to me
I will keep an eye out for these soft tone fluorescents people have mentioned. But I can always tell the difference, and to me it makes a BIG difference. The ambiance created by fluorescents is horrible. Just horrible. It makes me feel ill-at-ease in my own home, which is not worth whatever I'm saving on electricity.
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cfl's limited
You can't use a dimmer, you can't put them in a ceiling fan. That accounts for 2/3 of my lights. On the other hand, all those crappy lights that are limited to 60 watt bulbs can produce a loit more light with a CFL.
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Use them where they'll be on at least a few minutes
I always thought that the warm-up period of fluorescents made them bad choices where they'll be on less than a few minutes. Isn't it true that they have a brief warm-up period when they use a lot of energy, then once "lit" they use much less? Therefore, I only have CFs where they're usually used for more than five minutes, and incandescents where we only flip the lights on for a minute or two and back off again- laundry room, garage, etc. Doesn't it actually waste energy (and from what other readers are saying, wear them out faster) to flip them on and off a lot? I have a hard time actually tracking that info down. Everyone is so ready to push them, it seems, that they may be ignoring the fact that they are not always the best choice.
Does anyone know for sure if they are inefficient in a brief- use-only situation?
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Using new bulbs in three way and with dimmer switches
Two big questions I have about using these new bulbs:
1) Many of the lamps we have are for three way bulbs which is an efficient way to use energy adjusting the intensity as you need it. I assume you can't use these new bulbs in a three way lamp.
2) What about light circuits that use dimer switches. Can these new bulbs be "dimmed"
Thanks
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More on CFLs
I find that CFLs emit light that is more linear than incandescents. So one of the lights I have not replaced is a down light over the sink in my half bath. Actually, I have tried it, and the results are ghoulish.
In addition, the "60 watt equivalent" bulbs can be either 13 watt or 14 watt. My folks changed out all their lights when they got a deal at the local warehouse store, but I noticed they were both depressed and sluggish after. So while they were on vacation, I upgraded all their bulbs to their slightly stronger counterparts (and put some 75-watt equivalents in a couple of ceiling fixtures) and it seemed to help.