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About Compact Fluorescent Lamps

It’s time to take another look at compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Standard incandescent light bulbs waste an enormous amount of electricity.¹ In contrast, today’s CFLs consume one-fourth as much energy, last six to 10 times longer, are silent and inexpensive, and produce strong, unwavering light. Today’s CFL bulbs can be found at prices as low as $2 each.

Replacing the incandescent bulbs in the five most frequently used light fixtures in our home with CFLs can easily save $60 (or more²) in energy costs every year.

Not only does this save money, but it also helps the environment. Generating electricity from coal, gas and oil causes pollution. For every dollar consumers spend on electricity from a coal-powered plant, more than 28 pounds of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere.³ Ponder that…28 pounds! With electric bills averaging more than $60 per month, this quickly adds up.

CFLs are available to fit a wide range of light fixtures. Where space is limited, consider the new, “mini-CFLs,” which are roughly the size of a standard light bulb. Sylvania offers 23-watt CFLs to replace 100-watt incandescent bulbs and 13-watt CFLs to replace 60-watt bulbs. Philips and GE have similar products.

Old CFLs are still on the market. For the best experience, purchase bulbs that have the “Energy Star” label on the package. This certifies that the bulb meets certain quality requirements, including that it turns on instantly, produces no sound and falls within a warm color range (or, if not, it must be labeled as providing cooler color tones). Even so, CFLs are different from incandescent bulbs. The light is often whiter. Many of the bulbs take a few minutes to reach full brightness. It might take a week or two until they seem normal, but they usually do, and it’s worth the effort.

To help ease the transition, experiment with a few bulbs. If you want the light to be closer to incandescent lights, look for “warmer” colors, in the 2,700-3,000K range. For a whiter light, look for “cooler” colors, in the 3,500-6,000K range. It also helps to select CFLs that are slightly brighter (in lumens) than those you’re replacing.

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Footnotes

¹Less than 10% of the energy used by standard incandescent bulbs produces visible light. The rest is wasted as heat. Today’s long life incandescent bulbs are even more inefficient.

²To estimate your annual savings, multiply $2 times the number of hours per day that you have your lights on and multiply the result by the number of incandescent lights you have on at the same time. This calculation assumes that your bulbs average 75 to 100-watts.

³Based on $.085/kwh and 2.4 pounds of CO2 per kwh from coal-powered plants in our region.

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