Laptop and a Rifle compares LED bulbs with CFLs.
I replaced all our incandescents with 100W CFLs a couple years ago and our power bill dropped precipitously. I leave several running constantly and the cost is so small I dont think about it.
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I like LOTS of light, which is why I will likely stick with CFLs. As noted in the link, LEDs are more efficient in some ways but not if you need lots of light.
My experience with LED lamps as a electrician has not been good. They tend to burn much hotter than one would expect and the lamp life is nowhere near what is advertised because of the heat. For the extra expense, I would not recommend them at all. The technology and manufacturing needs a great deal of improvement before they will reach the level of efficiency and dependability of either incandescent or CFL lamps.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding the wattage designation, but wouldn’t a 100W CFL use exactly the same amount of energy as a 100W incandesant?
e.g. Run both for an hour, and each of them is going to cost you the price of .1KW/hr of electricity, right?
Methinks he meant 100w *equivilent* CFLs, which run at around 25w actual consumption.
Yeah, sorry about that, Phssthpok’s right, I meant the 100W equivalents — makes a gigantic difference in your power bill if you’re a big reader like me or other heavy user of electric light.
My wife recently bought 5 40W-equivalent CFLs for our bedroom ceiling fan, which has five smallish lamps, each occupied at that time a 40W incandescent bulb. As I unboxed the curly little buggers, I noticed the packaging proudly proclaimed a five-year life expectency. Amazing, I thought to myself, as three of the incandescent bulbs I removed were originally in the light fixture when we bought the house 11 years ago.
I doubt you were running the lights constantly for all eleven of those years; I believe that the five years touted by CFL bulbs is of actual active lighting time. I could be wrong, though.
I didn’t intend it as such, but my sheer laziness has resulted in the CFL on the side of the house being constantly on from the moment of installation. I’ve had to replace it pretty much like clockwork every two years. That’s impressive to me.
Your useful Ham Radio or Radio Astronomy neighbor hates all of you. If the whole world goes to CFLs, there isn’t a radio telescope on the planet which will work as designed. CFLs are noisy radio-emitters.
Build antennas on the far side of the Moon, build them in the Jupiter L4 and L5 points, and let’s find some REALLY cool stuff. Just saying.