Compact Fluorescents: An Illuminating Way to Save Money
CFL stands for Compact Fluorescent Light. It was about 7 or 8 years ago when we tried our first compact fluorescent light bulb. They were expensive, did not light as soon as you flicked on the switch and were were fairly dim...
A few weeks ago we ran across a CFL that turned on immediately, and was very bight. It got us wondering, were CFL's now ready for prime time as a way to save money? Let's take a look.
Assume the average home has 40 light bulb sockets. A 75 watt incandescent bulb costs about $.25 cents(on sale at Wal-mart) and lasts about 900 hours. If you keep your lights on for an average of 3 hours a day, then you would need to spend $10 a year for new light bulbs.
The electricity to run those lights would be a different story.
The national average for a kWh of electricity is about $.10 cents. A kWh will run ten 100 watt light bulbs for 1 hour.
In one year you would use 82,125 watt hours of electricity (75 watts x 1095 hours) or 82 kWh per incandescent bulb. Multiply this times 40 bulbs and your total annual electric use for lighting would be 3,280 kWh. At $.10 cents per kWh you would spend $320.80 on electricity every year.
The total cost for 1 year of incandescent lighting would be $330.80
Now let's calculate the cost of an a compact fluorescent.
A 20 watt CFL is as bright as a 75 watt incandescent. We just bought a 3 pack of GE 20 watt CFLs for $2.52 each at Wal-Mart. The life of these CFL's is 8,000 hours. Using the same 3 hours per day you would need to replace your bulbs only once every 7 years! The cost of 40 CFL's would be $100.80 Prorated they would only cost about $14.40 per year.
Here is the good part.
At 20 watts per bulb you would only use 21.9 kWh of electricity per year per bulb. The total cost of electricity for 40 bulbs for one year would be only $87.60! Add in the cost of the bulbs and the total annual cost for CFL's is only $89.04
That is a savings of $241.76 a year. The other advantage is only having to change your light bulbs only once every seven years!
Keep your eyes on Wall-mart and Sam's Club. They are participating in a cooperative, nationwide educational program called Change a Light, Change the World sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program. You might get chance to but CFL's at even better prices.
A few weeks ago we ran across a CFL that turned on immediately, and was very bight. It got us wondering, were CFL's now ready for prime time as a way to save money? Let's take a look.
Assume the average home has 40 light bulb sockets. A 75 watt incandescent bulb costs about $.25 cents(on sale at Wal-mart) and lasts about 900 hours. If you keep your lights on for an average of 3 hours a day, then you would need to spend $10 a year for new light bulbs.
The electricity to run those lights would be a different story.
The national average for a kWh of electricity is about $.10 cents. A kWh will run ten 100 watt light bulbs for 1 hour.
In one year you would use 82,125 watt hours of electricity (75 watts x 1095 hours) or 82 kWh per incandescent bulb. Multiply this times 40 bulbs and your total annual electric use for lighting would be 3,280 kWh. At $.10 cents per kWh you would spend $320.80 on electricity every year.
The total cost for 1 year of incandescent lighting would be $330.80
Now let's calculate the cost of an a compact fluorescent.
A 20 watt CFL is as bright as a 75 watt incandescent. We just bought a 3 pack of GE 20 watt CFLs for $2.52 each at Wal-Mart. The life of these CFL's is 8,000 hours. Using the same 3 hours per day you would need to replace your bulbs only once every 7 years! The cost of 40 CFL's would be $100.80 Prorated they would only cost about $14.40 per year.
Here is the good part.
At 20 watts per bulb you would only use 21.9 kWh of electricity per year per bulb. The total cost of electricity for 40 bulbs for one year would be only $87.60! Add in the cost of the bulbs and the total annual cost for CFL's is only $89.04
That is a savings of $241.76 a year. The other advantage is only having to change your light bulbs only once every seven years!
Keep your eyes on Wall-mart and Sam's Club. They are participating in a cooperative, nationwide educational program called Change a Light, Change the World sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program. You might get chance to but CFL's at even better prices.
CFL stands for Compact Fluorescent Light. It was about 7 or 8 years ago when we tried our first compact fluorescent light bulb. They were expensive, did not light as soon as you flicked on the switch and were were fairly dim...
A few weeks ago we ran across a CFL that turned on immediately, and was very bight. It got us wondering, were CFL's now ready for prime time as a way to save money? Let's take a look.
Assume the average home has 40 light bulb sockets. A 75 watt incandescent bulb costs about $.25 cents(on sale at Wal-mart) and lasts about 900 hours. If you keep your lights on for an average of 3 hours a day, then you would need to spend $10 a year for new light bulbs.
The electricity to run those lights would be a different story.
The national average for a kWh of electricity is about $.10 cents. A kWh will run ten 100 watt light bulbs for 1 hour.
In one year you would use 82,125 watt hours of electricity (75 watts x 1095 hours) or 82 kWh per incandescent bulb. Multiply this times 40 bulbs and your total annual electric use for lighting would be 3,280 kWh. At $.10 cents per kWh you would spend $320.80 on electricity every year.
The total cost for 1 year of incandescent lighting would be $330.80
Now let's calculate the cost of an a compact fluorescent.
A 20 watt CFL is as bright as a 75 watt incandescent. We just bought a 3 pack of GE 20 watt CFLs for $2.52 each at Wal-Mart. The life of these CFL's is 8,000 hours. Using the same 3 hours per day you would need to replace your bulbs only once every 7 years! The cost of 40 CFL's would be $100.80 Prorated they would only cost about $14.40 per year.
Here is the good part.
At 20 watts per bulb you would only use 21.9 kWh of electricity per year per bulb. The total cost of electricity for 40 bulbs for one year would be only $87.60! Add in the cost of the bulbs and the total annual cost for CFL's is only $89.04
That is a savings of $241.76 a year. The other advantage is only having to change your light bulbs only once every seven years!
Keep your eyes on Wall-mart and Sam's Club. They are participating in a cooperative, nationwide educational program called Change a Light, Change the World sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program. You might get chance to but CFL's at even better prices.
A few weeks ago we ran across a CFL that turned on immediately, and was very bight. It got us wondering, were CFL's now ready for prime time as a way to save money? Let's take a look.
Assume the average home has 40 light bulb sockets. A 75 watt incandescent bulb costs about $.25 cents(on sale at Wal-mart) and lasts about 900 hours. If you keep your lights on for an average of 3 hours a day, then you would need to spend $10 a year for new light bulbs.
The electricity to run those lights would be a different story.
The national average for a kWh of electricity is about $.10 cents. A kWh will run ten 100 watt light bulbs for 1 hour.
In one year you would use 82,125 watt hours of electricity (75 watts x 1095 hours) or 82 kWh per incandescent bulb. Multiply this times 40 bulbs and your total annual electric use for lighting would be 3,280 kWh. At $.10 cents per kWh you would spend $320.80 on electricity every year.
The total cost for 1 year of incandescent lighting would be $330.80
Now let's calculate the cost of an a compact fluorescent.
A 20 watt CFL is as bright as a 75 watt incandescent. We just bought a 3 pack of GE 20 watt CFLs for $2.52 each at Wal-Mart. The life of these CFL's is 8,000 hours. Using the same 3 hours per day you would need to replace your bulbs only once every 7 years! The cost of 40 CFL's would be $100.80 Prorated they would only cost about $14.40 per year.
Here is the good part.
At 20 watts per bulb you would only use 21.9 kWh of electricity per year per bulb. The total cost of electricity for 40 bulbs for one year would be only $87.60! Add in the cost of the bulbs and the total annual cost for CFL's is only $89.04
That is a savings of $241.76 a year. The other advantage is only having to change your light bulbs only once every seven years!
Keep your eyes on Wall-mart and Sam's Club. They are participating in a cooperative, nationwide educational program called Change a Light, Change the World sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program. You might get chance to but CFL's at even better prices.
posted by zzzzzzzzzzz at
2:39 AM
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