Random Access 3.0

I'd been working on a policy of 'replace the high wattage bulbs when they burn out' policy but due to a recent strobist article on CFL bulbs, rising energy costs, and just wanting not to burn energy for the sake of burning energy I went out and bought new compact flourescent light bulbs for ever fixture in the house.

Mostly I bought Sylvania brand lights where they had them but a few of the candelabra base or floodlights were not available from them, so I got some no-name brand Lowe's carried.

I've managed to replace most of the upstairs with them, and most of the downstairs. There are a few fixtures I flat out can't reach even with a 9ft ladder, and being lazy I've not got out the 30ft extension ladder to get to the one over the stair case, nor have I figured out how to reach the one inside the tiny cubicle we call a shower.

The bathroom lights were the globe kind, six in our bathroom, six in the kids bathroom, and four in the upstairs guest bathroom. That right there was $89 in lighting. doing the math I wonder if those particular lights will ever pay for themselves or if I'm just doing something nice for the environment. These were 65W Lights, so six of them is 390 watts of electricity per hour. or .39 KW/hr. In Wake Forest we're paying about $0.12 per KW/hr.

If you look at our bedroom for example, I'd guess that the lights are on about 3 hours per day. That's $0.14 per day or about $4.20 per month. With the new lights only drawing 9W each, or 54W for the bank of them. At three hours per day that's $0.02 per day, or $0.60 per month.

That's assuming that Calvin hasn't come in, turned them on, and walked off. Then they're on for a few more hours per day. So saving $3.60 per month in our bathroom with normal usage is $43 per year. Assuming they last 8000 hours like they say they will it'll cost me $51.34 to power that room until they die instead of $345.60 for the same amount of light bulbs, if they last 8000 hours. They're no name brand so who knows how long they'd have lasted.

So at $4.99 a light, they pretty much pay for themselves that first year.

It'll be interesting after a month or so of operating on these if I'll notice it on the electric bill. The challenge is we've updated Becca & Calvin's room to include ceiling fans, so they could wash out the difference in electrical usage. Time will tell I guess.