I swapped out my incandescent lights for the spiral fluorescent
lights. They are rated for 5 years (some maybe 7years) at 4 hours
usage per day. In both my old house and in my new home, I am not
getting anywhere near that. My longest one, the one least used lasted
2 years.

With the initial higher cost of the bulb, I'm GUESSING I would need
the bulb to last close to at least 4 years to pay for itself. The
bulbs run about $7 for 3ea 100 watt equivalent (they use 26 watts)
Maybe someone could help me on this math or show me how to figure out
how long they'd need to last to be a better buy then incandescents.

Is anyone else using these fluorescent lights? I get them at Wal-Mart
so it is whatever brand they carry. My current bad bulb is made by
Commercial Electric. It had a 7 year guarantee. It was installed
2005-01-06. At the rated 4 hours a day, I should have gotten 10,192
hours of use. I had the bulb for about 19,000 hours. If I ran it non
stop, day and night, I could have burned it out. But why the heck
would I buy an energy saving bulb if I wasn't trying to save energy.


What kind of hours are YOU getting? Have you folks in CA switched yet
before it becomes law?



Also, does anyone know of any light sources that use LEDs for the
home? I saw one at Lowe's ( like a Home Depo/Builders Square ) but it
seemed to be more for ambient light then to light a room or task
lighting. But some kind of device with a few dozen LEDs in it that
screwed into a standard socket would be pretty cool. I hear that LEDs
are as more efficient then fluorescent. Don't know if it is true but
I THINK I saw something that claimed the difference in efficiency
between LEDs and fluorescent's was about the same as the difference
between fluorescent's and incandescents. But that doesn't seem right
to me because fluorescent's are in the 90-95% efficiency range, right?
Again, I don't know, but I have started my search for better
fluorescent and LED lights.

But I would like your feed back - mainly on the life of your
fluorescent lights, but all the other stuff too.

( Got to remember to take the ambien after I write the emails. Wait,
did I take it yet? Well, better to be sure and take one more.)

Thanks

Bonnie
lass