the smedley log - suburban scrawl

Making light of electric bills

Posted by mobile phone:
A month ago I opened my first electric bill for the new place. It was a 20 day cycle, costing 29 dollars and change (six dollars of that was for transferring the account, so only 23 dollars were for actual usage).

My second bill just arrived today. It was a 29 day cycle this time, and usage was just 25 dollars. That’s 9 more days for only two more bucks!

My usage hasn’t changed. The only change I can think of is that about a month ago I changed out all regular light bulbs in the apartment for compact fluorescent bulbs.

According to my informal calculations, that means they’ll save me an average of eight dollars a month, covering their purchase price in less than three months. Color me pleasantly surprised by the difference those funny little bulbs can make.

Wow, now that’s the kind of economic incentive people can get behind. Cool…and good for the environment. Great combo.

And I even added a few new lamps, so I’m getting more lighting for less, which is quite nice.

Funny little bulbs?
If everyone replaced one,
two power plants – gone!

You’re saving the world
for my lovely daughters. They
thank you. I thank you.

well, funny-looking little bulbs

Even if they didn’t save electricity, they’d save you money because they last about 10 times longer.

On the energy saving front, yes, they save energy, but one transoceanic flight will spend up multiple lifetimes of kilowatt hours saved by compact fluorescent bulbs. Let’s not boast too much of our tithes on mint and cumin.

Conserving energy is a fine thing, but I confess the money-saving aspect is a real motivator too. Eight bucks a month will add up over the life of those bulbs.

As a caveat, CFLs’ long life is predicated upon normalized usage patterns. If you the average power-cycle for your lights is 5 minutes (that is, if you normally have them on for only five minutes at a time), it reduces the lifespan by as much as 85%.

But, usage will vary. And they still use less energy than incandescents. And I must admit that I like the white color of them, as opposed to the usual warm yellow.

Yeah … I installed a whole box of ‘em … but the durned halogen track lights in the family room just suck up the juice like no tomorrow.

I do have one halogen bulb in operation still, but it’s for my desk lamp and it’s about the size of a fingernail, so I hope I’ve not losing too much on that one

did a partial replace not real long ago and this is a reminder to buy more bulbs and finish.

An added bonus was told to me by a friend w/ some engineering background that the true specs for the 40 watt cute lamps can use their 60 watt bulbs due to the true lamp spec (by some non-watt parameter I can’t recall).

They are awesome.