Not that long ago, I set to replace the majority of our interior lighting with CFL (compact flourescent lighting) bulbs. By changing five lights from traditional incandescent bulbs, one can save up to $60 in energy costs. And more importantly, if every American took this step, one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases would be kept out of our air, with an energy savings equivalent to the annual output of more than 21 power plants!
But one of the shortcomings of changing to CFL that we immediately noticed was the spectrum and quality of light. We just recently learned that to approximate the yellow colour we're almost all accustomed to with traditional bulbs, choose a CFL bulb in the 2700 Kelvin range (CFLblubs.com).
I've been using the CFLs for years...especially in hard to reach light fixtures... and never really thought much about it. Then I just read the article that I've linked too..and was surprised to find out so few people choose them. The statistics the article listed are interesting, including that the bulb pays for itself within 5 months of use.
The article talks about how Walmart, of all places, is going to start pushing the CFLs, how they will do it, and the interesting consequences this decision will have. It will literally change the entire light bulb industry.
I've gradually been switching to warm florescent floods in our retail store and the difference in energy use is AMAZING. We've gone from $400/mo to just over $200/mo for our electricity bill and we have only replaced a fraction of our bulbs. Plus they last almost twice as long and, since we were clearly overpaying for our regular spotlight bulbs, the cost/bulb is less.
I learned a lot about how to compare light bulbs in the process.
1) compare how many lumens they produce, this tells you how bright the bulb will look.
2) where does the bulb fall on the color spectrum...warm vs. cool. Warm bulbs create a color that's closer to typical "soft white" incandescent bulbs.
3) hours of burn time.
I'm also making the switch at home as each light bulb burns out. They make nice versions that have a glass dome over the spiral, so they look almost like a regular incandescent bulb.
Has anyone seen florescent spotlights? All I've been able to find have been floods.
Yes, we've made the switch here to flourescents with some of our bulbs though I accidentally broke one this weekend and realized I couldn't just throw it away in my can. It has mercury. Wondering if anyone knows if the energy conservation qualities outweigh the mercury pollution potential? Thanks.
Stacie, I don't think you should be worried about mercury too much if you practice simple safety procedures. According to several sites, there is only an extremely small amount of mercury, about 5 milligrams, sealed within the glass tubing. Comparatively, there are about 500 milligrams to two grams of mercury in your average home thermometer.