Seeing the light on CFLs

As New Year’s resolutions go, replacing a household’s worth of incandescent bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescent lights seemed, so to speak, an especially bright idea.

With electricity costs in my Westchester County, New York, area much higher than the national average, it seemed a no-brainer to cut energy consumption at my home by installing CFLs. (Learn how to do an energy audit on your home here.) I’d already put in a handful of CFLs, but most bulbs were still of the energy-inefficient incandescent variety.

On New Year’s eve, I headed to the store with a list detailing the various incandescent bulbs I wanted to replace and their CFL equivalents. For example, according to the U.S Department of Energy:
a 9- to 13-watt CFL replaces a 40-watt incandescent;
a 13- to 15-watt CFL, a 60-watt incandescent;
an 18- to 25-watt CFL, a 75-watt incandescent;
and a 23- to 30-watt CFL, a 100-watt incandescent.

I also brought along a printout detailing lighting color temperatures. “Warm,” also called “soft,” lights are designed for interior spaces like the bedroom or spaces where you entertain. “Cool,” also known as “white,” “daylight,” or cool white,” lights are best for the kitchen and other areas where you want the very brightest light, including exterior applications.

Over the course of the next couple of days we replaced dozens of bulbs with CFLs. The biggest part of the job was using a new bulb whose brightness matched what we were used to, but it was otherwise a quick job.

Eventually, we’ll have to figure out what to do with the incandescents I removed. For now, they’re piled up on my workbench in the basement. Send us a note telling us what you’ve done with incandescents you’ve replaced.

Some other observations:

• Prices of CFLs remain too high. To make replacing incandescents an open-and-shut case even for the thriftiest among us, CFLs need to be cheaper than the roughly $2 to $5 I spent per bulb. Note that dimmable CFLs and those in unusual shapes and styles tend to be the priciest. You’ll find the best deals for 60- and 100-watt-equivalent versions.

• Some CFL types are limited. I couldn’t, for example, find CFLs to replace “flame-tip” bulbs in brightnesses that are close to what some of our fixtures require.

• You need to choose the right-color CFL depending on the application. I’ve had to install different CFLs in some fixtures to get the right type of light. In the master bedroom, I had to replace a dazzlingly white 30-watt CFL with a homier 23-watt. And we initially found one new CFL in the room where we watch TV distracting because it protruded from the shade. (We hardly notice it now.)
    If you find that a particular CFL doesn’t give off enough light, use a higher-wattage one. And if the CFL is too bright, install a lower-wattage model instead.

• Manufacturers should improve CFL technology so that turning lights on and off frequently won’t shorten the life of the bulb. Currently the DOE recommends leaving a CFL on for at least 15 minutes.

• Recycling a dead CFL needs to be made easier, as a colleague recounted several months ago in this blog entry. The good news, though, is that I haven’t had to dispose of a dead CFL; even ones I installed years ago are going strong.—Ed Perratore

Essential information: Read our advice on how to handle a broken CFL. And watch our CFL video on the new Consumer Reports video hub.

Photo courtesy of GE

Comments

[Mike W.]

During the initial introduction Of CFLs several years ago we replaced many of our household incandescent bulbs. The only location that presented a problem was the lightbar in the bathroom.
After six months the first CFL no longer functioned, after nine months all of the bulbs were nonfunctional. This was a costly exercise and we have switched back to traditional bulbs in the bathroom.
Has anyone else encountered this problem or know the specific reason for failure of these CFLs ?

[Carla]

Your article says that the DOE recommends leaving the lights on for 15 minutes at a time, but according to the linked page, that is not at all what the DOE says.

"ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs provide the greatest savings in fixtures that are on for a substantial amount of time each day. At a minimum, ENERGY STAR recommends installing qualified CFLs in fixtures that are used at least 15 minutes at a time or several hours per day."

This does not mean leave your lights on, it mean replace the lights you use the most to generate the most savings.

[Rob]

Unfortunately I'm having a problem with the life of my CFL bulbs. I've been using them for about 3 years, and so far the average life of a bulb is only around 6-12 months. I've tried several brands, and so far, I've had the same results with all of them. I'm actually given to wonder if the electricity in my home is "dirty" or if bulbs are going bad more quickly due to high heat levels because of the transformers attached to CFLs can't take the level heat in an enclosed fixture that a tungsten bulb can handle or something?

I've also been disappointed with the quality of the light from CFLs. Various brand's "cool", "warm", etc. are substantially different, and the spectrum of light produced is also often very different, many bulbs having an unnatural look. As a result, I've taken to buying bulbs which actually have the color temperature printed on the bulb in Kelvin. I find bulbs in the 3500K are fairly natural and correspond well to "soft white" incandescent bulbs such as GE's Reveal bulbs. For areas such as bathroom and kitchen, I use bulbs in the 5000K to 5500K range. 3000K is too yellow for me, and 6500K is far too blue for me. Almost all of the Sylvania bulbs I've seen and purchased have the Kelvin rating printed on the transformer of the CFL.

At this point, even with the short bulb life I've been experiencing for bulbs which are on for significant periods of time, CFLs are still saving me money.

Example:
- Cost of 15W CFL (60W incandescent equivalent) is $2-$5
- Cost of 60W incandescent bulb is $1
- Assume both bulbs will last for about 1800 hours (6 months at 10 hours/day)
- Bulb is on for 10 hours/day for a 6-month period
- Energy cost is $.15/KWh

Incandescent Energy Cost:
10 hours/day * 182 days * .060KW * $.15/KWh = $16.38

CFL Energy Cost:
10 hours/day * 182 days * .015KW * $.15/KWh = $4.10

Total price including bulb cost:
incandescent: $17.38
CFL: $6.10-$9.10

So the total savings with CFL, even assuming terrible bulb life, comes to around $11-$14 over the life of the bulb considering my energy costs. Even if energy was only $.05/KWh, there would still be a savings even with a $5 CFL bulb.

[Ron B.]

When purchasing CFLs for indoor use, choose by color temperature. Many so-called "warm" colors are not warm enough or do not produce a flat spectrum. These can make wall paint and other colors in your home appear very odd and unappealing.

[Allen E.]

One feature missing from CFLs and not mentioned in this article is dimmability. There are dimmable CFLs out there, but they cost about 3 times as much as regular CFLs and none of them will dim below 50%.

[Dan Fulton]

The Birmingham Retired Educators Association is promoting CFL bulb replacement among its members. Also, BREA has purchased 275 CFL bulbs from bulbs.com to donate to Meals on Wheels clients in Jefferson County, Alabama. This community project is coordinating with Earth Day 2008.

[Chris Barr]

Re: CFL bulbs fail after few weeks/months.
I had this only with ones bought @ an off-price 'bargain basement' retailer, and, it was in the early days of CFL, maybe 2006. Since then, purchased blubs (even candelabra base) have not failed.

Right now, though, I'm getting 3 bulbs for a ceiling fixture and I'm a little concerned about heat - we'll see how it goes.