It pays to conserve electricity.

[sudsmaster]

I've had good results with the FEIT 75 watt equivalent daylight bulbs. Costco periodically has them on state instant rebates, so they wind up costing less than $1 per bulb. FEIT used to make relatively crappy CFL's, but now they are pretty good. I also like their 100 watt equiv warm white bulbs - which are more compact (thinner tubes) than past ones and give good light.

As for LED's, yes they are instant on and work better in cold temps, but they often are not any more energy efficient than CFL's. I use several in my fridges and freezers, where they work great. Also for a living room lamp on a timer, and the porch light. Low lumens but for these applications it doesn't matter.

I've also had good results with Fluorex 300 watt equiv outdoor flood lights. I even have them hooked up to motion detectors. They give great light and fire up very rapidly. As I recall, they use 65 watts, each, but generally I have them on only a short time (unless I need the light to work on stuff in the courtyard at night).

 

[jamiel]

Now pete, you're cheating. Those bulbs are supposed to stay in the DTE service area.

 

[petek]

Jamie.. you ought to stop by here one of these days, it aint that far. just follow 94 east for about an hour, you'll need 3 bucks for the bridge both ways and either a passport, Nexus or enhanced drivers license

 

[cadman]

I hear ya Sandy! In my "marketplace", a little goes to China. A lot goes to the second hand shops ; )

Twintub, you're right, it'd be a different story if I were in PS. This time of year every light I turn on is one notch less on the thermostat. Between the decent rates we have in this area, and my thrifty '51 Coldspot that costs only $1.75 a month to run, I don't mind too much!

 

[jerrod6]

twintubdexter

Just curious.  Do you know what your relative humidity was during the 105F day?

 

[mrb627]

IKEA

Ikea was on the news this evening and announced that they have begun phasing out incandescent bulbs and CFL'S would be gone by 2014. They will carry only LED,s from there on out. So if you like the CFL bulbs, plan on stocking up in the next year or so.

Malcolm

 

[twintubdexter]

Jerrod...

The relative humidity has been about 8%...kinda dry huh? Maybe I shouldn't complain. In the 10 years I've lived here this has been the very worst summer...constantly high temperatures, unusual humidity from Baja and the Gulf and worse, the smell of dead fish from the decaying Salton Sea...about 60 miles away.

dead talipia on the Salton Sea...got tartar sauce?

 

[lordkenmore]

I've been more or less satisfied with the CFL bulbs I've used. The only ones I've hated are the really cheap ones. One put out a huge amount of RF interference.

Although for me the energy savings are not a huge deal most of the year. I have electric forced air heat, so waste heat from a light bulb is just a little less load on the furnace.

 

[lordkenmore]

In my "marketplace", a little goes to China. A lot g

Sounds like my marketplace! The less I buy new these days, the happier I am!

 

[washer111]

Plasma TV Burn Risk

Ours certainly DOESN'T produce enough heat to burn someone, but it still makes a nice heater, thats for sure!

And Re the IKEA lamps - their CFL's are pretty useless. They don't emit nearly enough light and were too yellow in the ones we had. I switched mine to another Mini-Spiral in the Cool Blue (Cool Daylight) spectrum. Far better.

 

[jerrod6]

twintubdexter

Yeah your humidity is kinda really low.  I asked because there are two kinds of heat gains.  One is sensible and the other is latent.  If your humidity is high the AC must remove this humdiity(latent) before it can even touch the actual temperature(sensible).  So in high humidity areas the AC must run longer because it first has to deal with the latent heat and after that it can begin to lower sensible heat.

 

It is kind of like the heat index we hear about in weather forecasts.  I have a weather station and right now the outside temperature is 76.5F with a relative humidity of 85%.  This makes the heat index or feel like temp 80F.  If this condition existed inside my house and I set my t-stat to  74  down from 76,  my AC would first have to run to remove the humidity(latent heat) to get the heat index air temp down to the 76F (the latent heat), then it would continue to run to lower the temperature to 74.  The more humidity to deal with the longer and harder the AC has to work, the higher the electric bill, unless you have  low rates. 

 

 

 

 

 

[jerrod6]

I touched mine today

I touched my plasma TV today for the first time.  No it doesn't give off enough heat to burn an adult, but I don't know what it might do to some 7 month old kid.  I think the warning was overblown, but nevertheless there is a lot of heat escaping from the screen.

 

Agree the Ikea CFL  bulbs -  not good.  I used other CFLs and Halogens and now am using Philips brand  LEDs, so I will wait to see how the Ikea LEDs perform.  Thing is that as the availability of  LEDs increases the cost will go down which is a good thing.

 

[polkanut]

Well, we did it again!!!  We received a 2nd month of free gas & electricity from WPS (WI Public Service).  Our total usage amount was $79.11-6.75 (air cond. control credit)=72.36.  Our new monthly budget amount has been adjusted from $142 down to $127.00.  Because the current charges fell under the budget amount, we have a $13.13cr which gives us another month of free electric & gas.  YEE-HAW!!!

 

[passatdoc]

@washer111

Agree, and I rarely use IKEA brand any longer, but ten years ago their bulbs--when on sale--broke the $5 barrier and were far more economical than the $5+ bulbs offered for sale elsewhere. Eventually, the power companies in our area began to subsidise CFS bulb prices at hardware stores and price began to drop, but the only store where I could have switched the entire home over to CFS for $120 (at that time) was IKEA, and only during their special one week sale.

The only IKEA bulbs I buy now are those with the miniature "candelabra" sockets, which are difficult to find in hardware stores. Although I still use incandescent "candle tip" bulbs in the dining room light fixture, the exterior of the home has a number of light fixtures using two of the miniature sockets each. Most of the miniature bulbs are unattractively coiled (these are light fixtures with clear glass sides, so you can see the bulbs), but IKEA offers one that looks like a ping pong ball (an opaque glass enclosure around the coils) which is less unsightly. In addition, on the hall entry table I have a small Tiffany-style lamp with miniature socket and the only bulb that fits is the IKEA "ping pong" model. Otherwise, like you, I use soft whites for normal lamps inside the home.

 

[passatdoc]

question about LEDs

The only LEDs I own are several IKEA task lamps with a built-in LED (not sure if it can be changed if it wears out). Do they make LEDs that fit into standard lamp sockets, i.e. ones that can be swapped for existing incandescants or CFLs?? And if so, what is the cost?

 

[davey7]

Ya'll are gonna hate me, my electric bill from ComEd (Commonwealth Edison) averages $16 or so, outside of the two ac months when it's like $40. Of course, since I live in an apartment building, I don't pay directly for cooking gas, laundry, hot water heating or heat (all gas). It dropped when I got rid of the groovy Westinghouse fridge which couldn't keep the ice cream hard or milk cool anymore, despite it's avocado interior. But my hi-fi has a hard-off switch and I keep the dvd/crt tv on a power strip and the laptop unplugged, so there are no vampires charging or sucking power and I don't use my dishwasher often either.

Passat Doc - yes, you can get replacement LED's, especially for spot lights, i.e. can lights, etc.

I remember my parents got an early CFL from their electric company in the mid-80's and used it in the basement for a number of years, it was nice looking, with a domed cylinder housing, but it wasn't very bright and had limited usage in that format, i.e. too heavy for a table or floor lamp.

I always love those HOA's which don't allow laundry, fences or vegetable gardens because they look "low rent" or something.

I'll have to post a picture of the bulbs in my living room fixtures (sort of lightoliers with five standard base candelabra bulbs which have some kind of geometric pattern on them - could they be from the 20's? The lights are hardly used, so it wouldn't surprise me). But just for fun, here are some nifty led's I saw this weekend in a brand spanking new concert hall.