Mark's Compact Fluorescent Light Page
The following are comments on CFLs, based on my personal experiences with them in my home, where replacing incandescents with CFLs and a host of other tasks has reduced our electricity bill noticably.
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Rationale:
The rationale for switching to CFLs (whether you're looking to lower your bill or reduce your demand on generation capacity) is pretty simple: They use far less electricity than you'd expect, and the time to recoup your investment in the bulbs (for high-usage bulbs) is usually less than 4 months. Thereafter, it's the "gift that keeps on giving".
Here's a spreadsheet you can use to calculate your costs and savings when switching an incandescent to a CFL.
Recommendations:
- CFLs can be replaced with far lower wattage than most manufacturers recommend. For example, most 60-75w incandescents can be replaced by either a 12 or 16w CFL.
- A 23w CFL is incredibly bright. In fact, so bright that I wouldn't use it to light up our driveway.
- Use slightly brighter CFLs to replace incandescents in a lamp with a heavy shade.
- CFLs aren't recommended for fixtures with dimmers because CFLs are either on or off -- and it takes very little voltage on a usual dimmer to kick in a CFL.
- "Noodle light" / twirly CFLs can seem harsh in small locations with white walls, given that they give off a much "whiter" light than incandescents that can be selected with a more "yellow" glow.
- Use a covered/domed light for a softer colour, or where you want a more conventional looking lamp.
- I'm convinced that the longer a CFL is in use, the faster the warm-up period (I know, sounds crazy, but this is our experience using them for over a year now). Our most used CFLs now warm up to full brightness in no more than 5 seconds, whereas at first they used to take upwards of a minute.
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