# What kind of energy saving lights do you use ?



## yuandrew (Nov 26, 2004)

Mostly compact flourscent lamps for me with some halogen when I need a very focused light and a few "Miser" type bulbs

Compact Flourescent Lamps (CFLs):
GE 13 watt Biax Adaptor [Not in use]
Lights of America 13 watt “The Bulb” (discontinued) [Dining room Ceiling Fan]
GE 13 watt Electronic Biax Lamp (discontinued) [Dining room Ceiling Fan]
Top Lite 13 and 20 watt spiral lamps (Have one 13 watt and five 20 watt lamps) [One 20 watt lamp is in my bedroom. The rest are not being used]

Top Lite 20 watt Tri-Tube lamps (I have 2 of these) [Recessed fixtures in downstairs hall]
Top Lite 13 watt mini spiral lamps (I have 2 of these) [Hood over the stove and one not used]
Green Lite 18 and 23 watt spiral CFLs [18 watt in my bedroom. 23 watt in Living room
Maxlite 23 watt Spiral Max [Living Room]

CFL fixtures:
Lights of America 55 watt flourescent torchier [Den/Study]
Sunpentown 27 watt Easy Eye desk lamp [Den/Study]

Normal Fluorscent Fixtures
One 20 watt GE Chroma 50 in my bedroom on the ceiling
Two 40 watt GE Kitchen and Bath 2700K and one 40 watt Ge Chroma 50 in the kitchen (The fixture holds 3 tubes)

Non-Flourescent energy saving lamps:
Philips 50 watt Halogen Floodlight (I have 4 of these) [Used in Living Room track lights]
GE Miser 45 watt flood [front hall and kitchen]
GE Miser 95 watt bulb [garage]


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## Muppet (Nov 26, 2004)

Sunlite 85W (== 425 watts of incandescent light). They only come in 2700 K and 6500K color temps, and probably have a CRI around 85, but they're cheap. I'm looking for a 5500 K light with a > 90 CRI in the same brightness but haven't found anything yet...


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## Zelandeth (Nov 26, 2004)

Okay, let's see...

In here: 

Osram Dulux EL 20W. (x2)

Hallway: GEC of which I can't remember the model offhand, 15W.

Saverlamp Super Spiral 85W in the kitchen.

Also, Philips CDM ColourMaster 35W Metal Halide lamp in an uplighter in here, F8T5 linear fluorescent, F20T4 fluorescent, and an NE-2H "Flicker flame" candle bulb.

Suppose you could count the 35W SOX low pressure sodium lamp next to the television as well. It goes on sometimes.


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## brickbat (Nov 26, 2004)

Computer room: 2-14W CFLs
Kitchen: 7 – T8 Fluorescent (electronic)
3 – T12 fluorescent (magnetic)
Dining 3 – 40W Halogen R20
Living room task light	70W CMH Mastercolor
Home School room	2 – 70W CMH Mastercolor
Outdoor: 2 – 50W HPS White SON
5 – 3W CLS
3 – 14W CFLs
Shop 15- 50W HPS White SON
3 – 14W CFLs
2 – T8 Fluorescent (electronic)
24 – T12 Fluorescent (magnetic)
Kid’s room 6 – T8 Fluorescent (electronic)
Laundry Room 6 – T8 Fluorescent (electronic)

Everything else is good old fashioned incandescent.


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## jtr1962 (Nov 27, 2004)

basement: mostly 40W 4-foot linear fluorescents and a few 4-foot 32W T-8s thrown in.

kitchen: 4x32W 4-foot full spectrum linear fluorescent

my bedroom: 4x32W 4-foot full spectrum linear fluorescent + 1 6500K 19W CFL + 2 26W 5000K CFLs. I use the CFLs either separately or together when I want less light than the ceiling fixture

master bedroom: 2 3-way 2700K CFLs

family room: 1 32W D-tube CFL and 1 22 watt circular CFL

bathroom: 3 14W 3000K CFLs and 1 32W circline fixture

side light: 1 24W 2700K CFL

garage: 2 24W 2700K CFLs and 4 40W 4-foot linear tubes

I personally dislike the term "energy saving" for fluorescent lighting as I think fluorescent lighting, especially linear fluorescents, should be used everywhere indoors except for lights that are turned on and off frequently. Outdoors, other types of discharge lighting such as HID makes more sense. Therefore, I propose to just call fluorescent lighting "regular lighting", and refer to incandescents as "energy wasting lights". OK, what kind of energy wasting lights does everyone here use?


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## brickbat (Nov 27, 2004)

Was in Home Depot today - they have a pretty good deal on packs of 14W twisty CFLs - 'Commercial Electric' Brand. My experience with these has been pretty favorable. They're priced at $6/pack of 6. They're 'soft white' and a pretty decent color match to incandescent, and have a very high initial light output, with a short warm-up time. The ballast housing is also small enough in diameter to fit in most sockets designed for conventional incandescent lamps. Too soon for me to comment about long term reliability of this particular model, though I've had some other CE CFL lamps in use over 1 year with no trouble.


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## Minjin (Dec 9, 2004)

Has anyone had experience using compact fluorescents outdoors? I recently bought a house to fix up and I want to leave the front porch light on at all times so the place doesn't seem so empty. First, I put in one of my standard 14w (60w equivalent) bulbs and turned it on at night. I thought, thats certainly quite bright. And of course after 5 mins, I was thinking, thats TOO bright. So I went to HD and looked around a bit and came out with a 9w compact fluroescent. This one seems like it will do the trick. Its rated at 10,000 hours, so thats about a year of continuous use with less than a dollar in electricity per month. Its in a housing, but I was just wondering if you guys have any problems with putting these outdoors.

Mark


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## jtr1962 (Dec 9, 2004)

I've been using one on the side light with no problems. It takes a long time to get bright in the winter, but other than that I haven't had any problems. The first one lasted about 13 months and maybe 5000 hours. The second one has been in for I think 8 months so far.


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## udaman (Dec 10, 2004)

Minjin,
If you are speaking of CE brand CFL (and I wonder if the same factory makes the TCP brand also, though wouldn't necessarily mean they are the same CFL as far as construction/quality of parts, goes) I have had a Chinese made Philips 3 tube CFL fail outdoors in an *enclosed* fixture above the door, where the heat inside the fixture causes the failure. But I have also had one CE 27w CFL fail in the same fixture, with less than 5,000hr or 1/2 the rated life. I had another 27w CE CFL indoors where it was in an BD(base down) *open* fixture. But again the culprit seems to be the heat fries the electronics inside the base of the CFL. They just are not designed with components that can withstand high heat. Those 23w CFL CE's that I have in open BU (base up) fixtures indoors seem to be working well enough. YMMV


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## Minjin (Dec 10, 2004)

Thanks for the input. Mine is the spiral CFL (from various figures seems more efficient than the multiple U tubes). Seeing how its only a 9w, I'm going to guess that it should be fine when it comes to heat. 

Thanks again.

Mark


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## TORCH_BOY (Dec 11, 2004)

Spiral CFL 22 watt in all rooms, Leds for smaller lighting tasks, luxeon Leds in all my Flashlights except for one
being the Thor spotlight.


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## evan9162 (Dec 12, 2004)

4 14W A-type (bulb-shaped) CFLs in the cieling fan in the living room. 

23W spiral CFL in the light-sensor controlled street lamp in front of the house.

replaced 3 of the 5 65-W R30 floodlamps in the kitchen with CFL floodlamps.

Replaced the 65W R30 floodlamp over the shower in the master bath with a CFL floodlamp.

20W daylight spiral CFL in the lamp on the end table (hardly used)

Custom made Luxeon lanterns and cabinet lights in the living room.

Wintertime power bill is around $27 (gas heat/water, electric range/dryer, 1 computer and laptop on nearly 24/7)


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## flashlight (Dec 12, 2004)

wow, I have too many to list, nearly the whole house I guess, from 5W CFLs, 25W globes, to full-spectrum 32W circline... plus a whole lot of spares in a box in the storeroom. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


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## modamag (Dec 12, 2004)

I've always been "energy" concious and early adopter of CFL. I've upgraded all my lights to CFL where I could 6-7 yrs ago for ~$300. Big incentive at the time too due to all the California power outtage. :money:

I've only replaced 3x 14W and 5x 21W spiral thru out the period. I wanted to replace my old CFL with the new "quick start" one but many are still good. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The only ones I really despise are the 5W mini candles. They only give out ~150lm each. I swear they don't look 150lm each. With a cluster of 8x in my dining room it makes every diner a "romantic diner". I just replace the darn thing this weekend with 2x R40 recessed lighting. Less energy consumption (38W vs 40W) and a whole lot more lights (2300lm vs. 1200lm). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

Here's my contribution to the green house effect:
18x 14W Spiral
3x 23W Spiral
4x 16W R30
6x 19W R40
10x 40W T8
3x 5W E12 Candelabra Base (Candles)

Household size of 8 adults & 1 infant. The little bugger uses the most electricity for heating his milk every 3hrs, lighting stays on from 5PM -> 7AM, and all the batteries operated sound machines.

Average summer utilities bill ~$50
Average winter utilities bill ~$70

More $$$ for energy saving "flashlights"


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