In a bid to save money on electrical bills, we’ve been switching all of the commonly-used lights in our house to compact florescent (CF) bulbs. We started about a year ago, and just finished yesterday, after I discovered a kind of 60W-equivalent CF bulb I hadn’t seen before that is no taller than a standard light bulb and can fit some lamps that no other CF bulb has before.
When I first read this article, it sounded like a good idea. But when I started doing research for this blog entry, I ran across a lot of information on CF bulbs that I hadn’t known before that lead me to believe that CF might just not be ready, at least for most people. Lots of reports of bulbs that burn out prematurely, ones that fry their electronics and get dangerously hot and start to smoke, and the like. And the initial purchase is more expensive, though if such bulbs work as they’re supposed to, they’ll save far more than they cost in the long run.
I’m just wondering whether mandating the switch from an older but proven technology, to one that’s newer but still has teething pains, is a good idea. On the plus side, it will bring the problems to light a lot faster (no pun intended).
We’ll see.
I’ve read about the lower power consumption of LED lighting (don’t laugh, they now have inexpensive and bright white LEDs.) In NYC, they are replacing most of the trafffic lights and crosswalk signs with LEDs. It seems to be working fine, they are bright and use less electricity. (Maybe that means they’ll lower taxes? Riiight…)
From what I read a few months ago, LED light bulbs still aren’t up to the task of home lighting. There are limits on their brightness, and they’re still quite expensive. On the other hand, they use even less power than CF bulbs, and apparently last even longer. In another few years they’ll probably be the hands-down winner, but for now they’re still limited to specific applications.
True, the traffic lights here aren’t really as bright as home light-bulbs. However, they are as bright as the traffic lights they replaced. I recall some LED manufactorer engineers mentioning how their companies were desirable for investment. I don’t know whether that’s the case, I’m no investment maven and they probably have an interest in people investing, but I wouldn’t doubt it. Especially if improvements are made wrt home and office lighting.