[RDasher]

I have had short life experiences with CFL. I have been dating them so I really know how long they last. About 1 year is it. The color spectrum of them is still crappy for use in living areas.

In a residential application lighting is really a very small amount of electricity use. Major users are your refrigerator, furnace (heating and cooling) fans, air conditioning, water heaters. New televisions like large screen plasmas and LCD draw 400 watts and up.

[raybbr]

In a residential application lighting is really a very small amount of electricity use. Major users are your refrigerator, furnace (heating and cooling) fans, air conditioning, water heaters.

Not necessarily true. I have three recessed lights in my hall. I used to use 45 watt floods. Now I use 13 watt fls.

The lights around the kitchen are all 13 watt fls. It's a comparison of 300 watts versus 52. The lights are on most of the time in the evening.