Condo: Lighting

[bolson]

What's the biggest thing I can do to make my household more energy
efficient? Insulate it. Well, that's expensive and hard (but totally on the
to-do list for next season if not this).So, what's the next big thing that
we all get reminded to do? Change lightbulbs. It's easy and cheapish and
relatively effective for that amount of work. So, I took stock and I have
over 40 lightbulbs I could replace. Half of those have a
smaller-than-standard socket as part of some decorative fixture in the
ceiling fan. Another quarter are much shorter than common bulbs. Between
these constraints my choice in CFL replacements will be somewhat limited,
but I'm pretty sure I've seen the right kinds of things out there.

Comments

[nosila99.livejournal.com]

Less than a year ago, I did some minor bathroom remodeling and put in CFLs at the same time. I have been extremely disappointed.

First of all, most of the CFLs on the market take a long time to warm up and reach full brightness. My first set of CFLs had a terrible color temperature that seemed completely unnatural. I set those aside and bought some with a warmer look. Within 3 months, the first bulb burnt out. I figured "hey, MTBF means some will fail early, some will fail late" so it was no biggie - there were 3 others in the fixture, so I didn't even bother replacing the bulb. Just yesterday, 2 more of the bulbs burnt out. So within 1 year, I lost 3/4 CFLs that ran for O(1 hour/day), being turned on/off about 3x/day. I don't know if I just pulled these from a bad batch, but either way it's annoying.

The CFLs I have that are the coil type seem to be far better than the decorative bathroom ones. I don't know why, but in my fairly limited experience this seems to be the case. I haven't yet decided whether to give CFLs another chance in the bathroom fixture - I managed to dig out 2 25W bulbs to stick in there for now.

Probably the easiest thing to make a big difference, if your condo doesn't already have one, is to get a programmable thermostat. Also, get draperies (not just mini blinds) for the windows. This will act as extra insulation on the part of the house that needs it most.

[devreux.livejournal.com]

I've also found that the very-low-wattage bulbs take a long time to warm up and have a weird color. I only use them in one or two places where I'm willing to deal with it, although when they eventually burn out I may switch back to incandescent.

However, I use large CFLs, some coil-type and some parallel-rod type, in my ceiling fixtures and have never noticed a difference. I can get more lumens for less waste heat, which is awesome. (I loathe dim overhead lighting.)

(Okay, actually one of the ones in the den hums, but I think I'm one of a small percentage of people who hears things like that. It's kind of annoying on the days when I can't tune it out.)

[blk]

I got a bunch of lights from 1000bulbs.com, and have been reasonably happy with them and their selection. However, the advice that I got, that I can pass on, is that bulbs which are a) in a non-ventilated place, b) get turned on and off frequently, or c) don't spend much time on are probably better off left as incandescent. The CFL may use less energy for the short amount of time they are on, but will burn out much faster and cost you significantly more to replace.

[flexagon]

It's actually very easy and fast (but expensive) to replace all your windows with hardcore windows like the Newpro triple-pane ones. They come and take measurements, and then later they come and Just Do It. It's amazing how much warmer a room can become when the windows are suddenly good!