Today we replaced most of our light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFL). The initial outlay isn't cheap, but for the number of bulbs we have, we figured it would be worth it over the long run.
Here's our initial light bulb breakdown:
- 23 can lights (inlaid, ceiling) at 65 watts a piece = 1,495 watts
- 14 regular bulbs at 100 watts
= 1400 watts
- 5 regular bulbs at 60 watts = 300 watts
Total = 3,195 watts
At a conservative 5 kilowatt-hour rate, turning on all our lights for a solid day would cost nearly four dollars.
Now, we have bulbs that are a scant 15 watts, but supply the same light output. That means a total of 630 watts, which means a full day's output cost of 75 cents.
We're quite happy with the light quality itself. Initially we were a little wary of the "fluorescent" part of the CFL, but the bulbs produce a nice soft-white facsimile of an incandescent. The only downside to these lights that we can see are that they're not dimmable. But we don't have dimmers nor do we really want them.
So at least now at least I can say my carbon footprint is a tad lighter.
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