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To: RFH
I can get a 4-pack of light bulbs at the 99-cent store. Back in 2000, an article in Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/88871/) showed how you would save a whopping $26 in 3 1/2 years by changing out all your incandescent bulbs to fluorescent. That's about $7.50 a year

That chart's pretty old. You can get a CFL for under $5 these days. But for comparison let's use that. A cheap incandescent might last you 750 hours. You've already bought about 10 bulbs for the one CFL (8,000 hour life) at a price of about $2.50. So just bulb buying you're already up to half the cost of a CFL.

Now we have to account for your other $2.50. 8,000 hours of incandescent at 100W is 800 kHh. 8,000 hours of approximate CFL is 184 kWh. Difference is 616 kWh. Depending on your electricity cost, that can be anywhere from $37 to $234, with an average of just over $65. Now subtract the $2.50 and you get about $63.

That's $63 per bulb over about five years (using it about 5 hours a day), or about $13 saved per year per bulb. How many bulbs do you have? I've replaced (very rough estimate) 800W worth of incandescent with CFL, which puts me around $100 per year saved. That's like running my electric water heater for almost three months for free.

43 posted on 01/31/2007 9:46:06 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat

They can state all they want that the life of the CFL bulb is 8,000 hours. It absolutely isn't in my experience. If they lasted 6 months, I was surprised, most of them were gone in 4-5 months. 8,ooo hours would be almost the equivilant of 4 full work years, assuming the lights were turned off for the lunch period, as everyone was gone from my client's office. NO WAY...
I don't know what kind of "testing" was done, but the bulbs he paid $7 for did not last anywhere near 8,000. I think someone slipped a zero somehwere. More like 800 hours in our usage experience. I won't use them.
Why is there such a push to keep "fixing what isn't broken"?????
The millions of illegal intruders from south of the border are using far more power than any change in light bulbs would even put a dent into. Get them out.


57 posted on 01/31/2007 10:02:12 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: antiRepublicrat

There is one fallacy to your argument. The power company will raise rates to offset their loss in income.

During a drought, the water company will say to conserve water. Lets say the community cuts its consumption by 30% which is lessens the affect of the drought. By the September, the water will cite loss of revenue, didn't make as much as they projected and have to raise rates to offset the decrease in water usage.


80 posted on 01/31/2007 12:29:57 PM PST by art_rocks
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