The Light Bulb That Can Change the World 1137
An anonymous reader writes to tell us FastCompany is reporting on the latest and greatest version of the compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). While CFLs of the past may have been efficient, they certainly were not effective. However, according to the article, CFLs have come as far as cell phones have since the mid 80s while still maintaining that high efficiency. From the article: "if every one of 110 million American households bought just one [CFL], took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads."
Saving the world one light at a time (Score:3, Interesting)
We are all guilty of leaving extra lights on and not shutting off the pc or tv, think of how much energy we can save if we switched off the internet just for a couple of hours (and I mean all of it, not just your terminal!)
Oil != electricity (Score:5, Interesting)
PG&E in California (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:So... (Score:5, Interesting)
Because they:
- are 3x-10x the cost of an ordinary light bulb
- are a bit dimmer than their stated wattage equivalent standard bulbs
- take a bit of time to warm up
- don't have quite the same color temperature as standard bulbs
- sometimes don't fit under (e.g.) ceiling fan light domes, especially the 100W equivalent models
Now don't get me wrong, I love CFLs and have replaced every single bulb in my house with one, but I can imagine quite a few people resisting the idea based on the list above.
That said, they are rapidly getting better (and cheaper!).
Re:What about the energy to produce the CFLs? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:White light? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:If this is true... (Score:4, Interesting)
However I do believe that oil powerplants should be all changed to nuclear and hydro where possible.
A CFL in every Home = 1 Nuclear Power Plant (Score:3, Interesting)
A CFL in every Home = 1 Nuclear Power Plant
I spent a lot of my weekend doing research on energy, power generation, etc. (See my MyWeb links) I decided to run some rough numbers, and have come to the conclusion that the best use of government funds is to probably have a CFL handout/trade-in program.
There are an estimated 110M households in the US, so if you replaced one 60W incandescent with a similarly lumen-rated 13W CFL (I'd estimate a distribution cost of $100M-200M), you'd save just over $4.1B in electrical bills over the lifetime of the bulbs ($0.10/kWh over 8000 hours). At 5 hours/evening of usage (~4.4yr), we're looking at almost a billion bucks a year. That's not a bad ROI.
Another interesting figure that comes out of that is that we're talking about a significantly large amount of power saved. Over the bulb lifetime, the number comes out to over 41M MWh, or based on the 4.4y estimated lifetime, about 9.4M MWh/yr. That's more than your average 1000MW nuclear power plant will be able to generate (about 7.8M MWh at 90% efficiency), and a significantly lower cost ($2-4/MWh for handing out light bulbs versus $50-80/MWh).
So, replacing 1 incadescent light-bulb in each of the 110M households in the country would save the equivalent of one nuclear power plant (or better yet, a bunch of fossil fuel ones, which function at a much lower efficiency (around 60%) and are usually lower capacity).
It's probably fair to say that up to 4 bulbs per house could be replaced before the law of diminishing returns kicks in. So we could save the equivalent of 4 nuclear power plants or 8-10 "dirty" power plants at 1/10th the cost of operating them, plus saving all the externalities like reduced pollution too.
LED Bulbs? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm curious about the future of LED light bulbs - the potential from a bulb w/ 60,000 hours of life and power consumption under a watt is very attractive. I know light dispersion is an issue (e.g. they just don't throw out enough light), but what's on the horizon?
Re:Change the world, only if you like flicker (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:So... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How many lights use standard 60-watt bulbs anyw (Score:3, Interesting)
Even in the case of the 100-watt CF bulbs, they're using 27-watts. So let's assume 40-watts for a 150 replacement. This reduces my 3x150-watts=450 to 3x40=120. Let's assume I use the lights 8 hours a day (overstatement, but let's assume maximum). This means I save 2.6KWH each day, which at about 10 cents per KWH means a savings of just over 26 cents a day, or about $95/year. Not bad, but unless the light quality is the same, not exactly enough to motivate me to jump out and buy them either.
Re:So... (Score:5, Interesting)
- are 3x-10x the cost of an ordinary light bulb
At less than $2 each, the ROI is VERY fast on a CF bulb. Unless you're very short sighted it doesn't make financial sense to use a normal bulb.
- are a bit dimmer than their stated wattage equivalent standard bulbs
With off-the-shelf CF bulbs I agree. With the ones linked above, using my preferred full-spectrum 5100K bulb, my experience has been just the opposite. I love the way they brighten up my home.
- take a bit of time to warm up
I haven't noticed this a bit. Instant on. They may get brighter after 30 seconds, but I've never noticed it, so if these ones do you'd need scientific instrumentation to pick it up.
- don't have quite the same color temperature as standard bulbs
With the full spectrum CF's linked above, that is a good thing! The few normal bulbs I have left put off a nasty yellow light compared to the full spectrum CF's. Gloomy and depressing. I just placed a $100 order before 1000Bulbs.com gets slashdotted so I can replace the rest of my normal, yuck-yellow bulbs.
- sometimes don't fit under (e.g.) ceiling fan light domes, especially the 100W equivalent models
OK, ok, size does matter. But they come in many different sizes and with a little planning I've had 100% success. I even rewired my kitchen chandelier to use these CF bulbs instead of those stupid tiny expensive candle ones. Couldn't be happier.
As you can see I'm sold on good full-spectrum CF bulbs. I have no affiliation with 1000Bulbs.com, they just happened to be what I was looking for and have good prices, products, and service.
I'm useless, but still.. (Score:2, Interesting)
My wife replaced all the bulbs in our McMansion with some kind of super-efficient full-spectrum bulbs. I didn't look at the credit card statement, so I don't really know how much it all cost, but I do know that we're using about 15% electricity each month and I can read and work at the computer longer without eye fatigue. Also, I look prettier in the mirrors and I can tell when I'm wearing one dark green and one dark blue sock (I didn't used to be able to do that).
I don't know what kind of magic these new bulbs posess, but I'm all for it.
Re:No, and I'll bet they don't include the heat. (Score:2, Interesting)
Correct, and in the winter, the heat from the 100W incandescent bulb reduced the load on your central heating boiler, which, with the new energy-efficient CFLs installed, now has to work harder. The result being that the energy savings aren't as great as claimed. You might say that is countered by the reduced work of the aircon in the summer, but that doesn't enter the equation in Europe where domestic aircon is almost unheard of.
The technology we should be watching is high-efficiency white LEDs, much more efficient than CFLs.
Re:Too much work (Score:1, Interesting)
I think it is worth the cost to my pocket and the Earth.
huge typo (Score:2, Interesting)
should read: "countries not invaded"
Re:How many... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The trade off (Score:3, Interesting)
According to this article in Wikipedia, an incandescent bulb actually releases more mercury into the environment than CF bulbs. This is because there is a minute amount of mercury in coal, which is released when it is burned for electricity. So the net result is less mercury released because less coal is burned.
Frankly, this is just a little too convenient. But it doesn't sound like a real problem anyway, since the Mercury was extracted from natural materials in the environment. If the rest of the Mercury article [wikipedia.org] is correct, it seems like a bigger problem is what to do when we run out of the material, or when it becomes too expensive to extract from the minute sources that remain.
WalMart Spin Machine in full effect - See Fortune (Score:2, Interesting)
Energy Savings (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:White light? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How many... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:So... (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm gonna wait awhile before I do that again..
Don't necessarily last as long as they should (Score:3, Interesting)
They seem to not last long at all in enclosed fixtures or hung upside down. I've gone through 2 CFL recessed-lighting bulbs in my office (enough to just switch back). The 75-watt equivilent in the 50s era enclosed fixture on the stairwell died within a week. The 150-watt equivilents I use in our outdoor fixtures have died with 9-12 months (but the cheesy yellow bug light models have lasted through 3 winters...).
All-in-all I'd say I've maybe broken even cost-wise (savings vs. lamp purchases). The best luck has been, strangely, in ceiling fan applications (ugly as sin, but no dead bulbs) and as lampshade-type lamp replacements.
Re:So... (Score:1, Interesting)
Also items like the lighted switches I have installed draw a little bit of power on the circuit constantly and the CFL bulbs pick that up and blink dimly when they are supposed to be off. The CFLs on that circuit burn out quickly.
So, pick the right tool for the right job.
Another note: there are some really expensive CFLs that work with dimmers, but I can only get them from the electric company. But since a regular bulb on a dimmer generally only consumes 25% of the power of max output, I am saving more money because I can buy cheaper bulbs. And good luch finding CFLs that work in a chandelier.
Re:What about the energy to produce the CFLs? (Score:4, Interesting)
About 30% of the halogens in my living room - where they get ample use - have not been replaced in 10 years, whereas I don't have a single fluorescent (tube or compact) that hasn't been replaced three times in that period. True, anecdotes do not make data, but I've learned to trust my gut feel more than advertisements.
Re:Too much work -- Arizona Joke Warning (Score:5, Interesting)
The A/C costs of COOLING that 90% are another huge energy gain.
--Michael
Eye strain/health issues? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:If this is true... (Score:4, Interesting)
You want to hear real crazy in the northwest?
Tacoma, Washington recently decided to add another span to their overloaded Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge. (You might remember the original one was Galloping Gurdy... yeah, it's that bridge.) The designer who created the new bridge came up with a great idea... the Tacoma Narrows is known for having insanely-fast currents while the tide is coming in and going out. His idea was to put turbines in the base of the bridge tower to generate power during the tide shifts. Selling the generated power would, over the course of a few dozen years, pay for the construction of the bridge while at the same time providing clean energy to everyone nearby. Win-win!
But of course, this is Washington Wacko-Environmentalist State. Instead, his plan was cancelled because the Wacko-Environmentalist movement decided that turbines, even covered with safety grilles, would kill fish-- and God knows that the lives of 3 fish a year is more important than tons of clean power! So now the bridge has a conventional base with no turbines and, as an added bonus, all of us non-wackos have to pay TOLLS to cross it!
I have nothing against practical environmentalists, but that movement needs to filter a little more against the wackos who seem more against the advancement of humanity than the protection of the environment. Washington and Oregon seem to be the foundation of this wacko movement, unfortunately.
Re:LED's - they are coming (Score:4, Interesting)
So they are coming. Then again, Cree seems to have a history of "science by press release", where they announce these amazing specs, then never bring the product to market.
Re:White light? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:White light? (Score:2, Interesting)
A fluorescent bulb does not have an equivalent "temperature" perse, as the radiation is not blackbody. That being said, modern ones are far better than the old ones.
RUBBISH You would just turn up the thermostat (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How many... (Score:3, Interesting)
Recycle your wife for a more energy efficient model. There's an energy war going on doncha know? Be patriotic... do your bit. Uh, she cute? Got her number?
Or try this trick: get a daylight CFL. They're right bluish. Ask her how she likes it. She'll hate it. Then put a regular (warm white) CFL back in and say you've fixed it. She'll say "That's better" and even when she realizes its not incandescent, because married women hate admitting they're wrong, she'll live with it rather that admit she thought it was incandescent.
Worked here.
Lower A/C costs, too (Score:2, Interesting)
Ironic as it may be for a Canadian such as myself to complain about air conditioning costs, but if you have a bunch of these going on in hour house, they're putting out a noticable amount of heat. If on top of this you are air conditioning your house (presumably in the summer), then you're paying to cool the air that your light is heating.
CFLs (BTW, CFL in Canada stands for Canadian Football League...please co-opt this acronym) use less energy to produce the same amount of light, so I can only assume that the energy difference is in heat savings. Add to this the savings from not having to re-cool that air, and you are then saving double in the summer.
Quite a clever investment!
- RG>
LED lights (Score:3, Interesting)
All of my home lighting is LED using the luxeon 3 and 5 watt models. I use about 1/20th the energy that I used when I was using CFs. Granted, I had to build nearly all the fixtures and powersupplies myself, but the 5 watt units only cost about 7 $US and put out light equal to an 80 watt tungsten. They cost far less and use way less energy that CFs, I don't know why they haven't caught on
Are the LED lights you have any good for whole room lighting? Last I heard the LED light good for whole room lighting are expensive. A few months ago I saw one for more than $50. That's way too much for me, I'd pay $10 but not $50.
FalconWhats wrong with the colour? (Score:3, Interesting)
Can you get a range of colour temperatures in other countries?
Re:No. T'ain't right. It's a Karma Light(tm) (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How many... (Score:3, Interesting)
they are coming. they are just expensive now. it is hard getting people to pay even 5$ for a decent cf that saves money and lasts a long time. that written, i have spec'd them in some high-end projects for mood (colors, effects) lighting.
http://www.loe.org/series/LED.php
http://www.theledlight.com/120-VAC-LEDbulbs.html
and to appeal to authority, i am an architect.
Do they still hum, flicker, and cause migraines? (Score:4, Interesting)
Are these better now?
Re:RF Noise? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'd start replacing bulbs in my home tomorrow if they didn't cause RFI...
wow. I love CFs and this is why. Incredible (Score:1, Interesting)
I was born and raised in the great U.S. of A. Currently, in my early 30s, I am living in a European country and since electricity prices are such a contast to CF light bulb prices, I use CF for every single light we use.
GE and Philips suck ass. Let me say that right now. When I first came here these were the brands I knew and trusted and I thought they were the best. I mean come on!? GE??? The lighting company? Philips?! The company on the cusp of tech? They had to know what they are doing...
No. they don't. And after a few years of using and trusting these light manufacturers, I learned something. Sometimes the biggest and the smartest really isn't. They have no idea how to make lights. And it shows in everything that is made in this market from them. I go home every 6 to 12 months. Back to the USA.
I go back and I try to find good CF lights. THERE ARE NONE... PERIOD. they suck. They suck hard. They are medium priced, but their performance is second to shit. There is a huge marget gap in America. HUGE... I live in TURKEY for christs sake. A country that is still considered third world by a lot of people. The CF lights that are here I would replace in a heartbeat if I had access to them in the states. Instantly. I only buy 120 equivelent bulbs for my home. oh yeah. OSRAM. German brand. Fucking Awesome. There is no warm up time and you get 120 watts equivilent instantly. running 23 watts of power. Yeah, it's bigger, but for 23 watts it kicks out a hell of a lot of light.
People complain because they have no options. there is a market gap in what there is in America and other countries. There are great technologies out there if you can find it. American is great, but it is not the end all be all of tech. Oh, and by the way, here in Istanbul, the cheap lights are the OSRAM lights. The best. The GE and philips? Expensive as hell. They last a year. Then they BURN OUT. I have an Osram light that has never wavered in my office. Same light, instant on, and I hit it sometimes when I dust. OSRAM is a sturdy brand. Look around. Search. In this world we as apeople are being held back by politics and marketing. Nothing more.
Find out.
Pete
Re:Flashlight question (Score:3, Interesting)
I think most bicycle lights tend to have three LED lights, more or less. Maybe six. Imagine taking three or four 32-LED flashlights (128 LEDs in all) and putting them on the front of one's bike.
LED idea for homes (Score:3, Interesting)