On Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:44:04 +0000 (UTC), (Don Klipstein)
wrote:

In , zzzzzzzzzz
wrote:

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 05:28:02 +0000 (UTC), (Don Klipstein)
wrote:

In , zzzzzzz wrote:
On 25 Apr 2010 05:02:10 +0 UTC, (Don Klipstein) wrote:

SNIP from here to edit for space

Do you claim that no home can have its electric bill halved by switching
from incandescents to CFLs?

Pretty much. If *all* he had were electric lights, no refrigerators, no
electric water heater, no stove, no clothes dryer, no dish washer, no
AC, only electric lights, perhaps. He would still have the "billing"
(flat) rate to deal with.

My experience in the Philadelphia metro area is that this is
$5.something per month.

...and you were going to save $.05 per day.

I figure more like 30 cents per day for my apartment. In most houses,
the savings are more.

Your numbers before were $.35 vs. $.30. Even at $.30/day, that's half the
cost of an unreadable newspaper; trivial. At that "cost" there is no reason
to put up with *ugly*.

In any case it's a trivial amount.

I don't see electric bills as trivial. One thing I do see is
opportunities with high ROI.

I see the *LIGHTING* part of my electric bill as an absolutely trivial
amount. The electric clothes dryer, dish washer, refrigerator, stove,
water heater, and heat pumps are not so trivial, but not a bank breaker,
either. Sure, I'd like a 50% reduction in my bill. I wouldn't walk
across the street for $5, though, particularly if it cost me $50.

For most, more can be saved by turning the damned things off (which
CFLs make problematic).

I already illuminate only what I need to illuminate and when I need to
do so. I still have most of my CFLs producing light for ~4,000 hours
without kicking the bucket.

When it takes 5-15 minutes for them to get to full brightness, most will
leave them on.

My N:Vision spirals are most of the way warmed up in 1 minute, and are
usually as bright at 2 minutes as they ae at 2 hours. This is according
to my Lutron LX-101A light meter. My Philips and Sylvania spirals arrea
only slightly slower to me.

The ones I bought certainly weren't. In cold weather they were even worse.
The laundry room light (not a CFL) took at least a half hour to come up to
brightness. Instead of just using it when we were in there, it stayed on all
day. A real savings there.