Are CFL bulbs making a big difference in your electric bill?

My boyfriend is in the process of switching all our bulbs to CFL's to trim a little off our electric bill but I'm not yet sold on their cost savings. When we bought the house we had a lot of LED lighting put in that helped reduce our electric usage but still have several lamps and chandeliers that use standard bulbs.

Has anyone seen a big difference in their electric costs by switching to CFL's?

Of course, I've been using the things for 10 years* and my electric bill still goes up.



* Long before pop culture decided they were 'cool'. :7

Like $35/mo, for a two story place when I run the AC a lot, closer to $20 when I don't.

My Dad's bill is a lot higher because he has a proper house rather than a little townhouse like mine, but he says that the CFLs have helped a lot, both because they use less power and because they don't throw off nearly as much waste heat.

Also, it's nice not to have to change bulbs all the time. Since I moved in, the only one I've had to change was my regular porch light (the CFLs don't work well where there are dramatic temp changes, and the porch light's hardly ever on anyhow.)

We don't expect dramatic changes in our bill, but we're hoping that the less-heat and energy usage will drop our costs after changing close to 50 bulbs.

It's a no-brainer here, because our local utility subsidizes them, and they're under a buck a bulb. When I moved in I got a few boxes of four for $2.30 each at Big Lots, and since regular bulbs aren't much less than that I probably made the difference back in a month or two, since that was winter and I had the lights on a lot more.

For my Dad's place, he had just started to switch over when Lowes had a sale where they were free after rebate (I think a pack of 6 was $8 before the rebate- already not bad) so we bought the limit and switched over most of the house that way, then got around to doing the bulbs in less frequently used rooms and the special decorative bulbs in the bathroom fixture later when there was another sale someplace else. The fancy bulbs were kind of expensive for a room where they're hardly used- personally I wouldn't have bothered, but when my Dad gets on a mission sometimes it's easier not to argue.

Also, light bulbs aren't everything. My crazy low bill is also helped by a newer, more efficient, and fairly small fridge (I didn't buy it, but the place I rent was remodeled not too far back) and the TV and the computers being energy star rated.

My place has plenty of insulation, I keep it like an iceberg in the summer, and my average bill is around $60/month on the budget billing plan. I keep a number of computers powered on 24/7, including an older, power-hungry PowerMac G5.

And yes, I use CFLs wherever I can. I don't have them in my bedroom, dining or living rooms where I want the dimmability of incandescent lights (yes, dimmable CFLs are available, but pricey)

and it was over 2 years before we had to replace it. We kept it on 24/7 too.

120 watts to 12 watts. Auto timer to remote control.

Our house is loaded with recessed spot lights, at least 25. 25 X 75 Watts = 1875 Watts (incandescent). All have been replaced with CFL's. 25 X 23 Watts = 575 Watts. All other lamps have been replaced to CFL's as well.

On the other hand, our old 36" Sony XBR Wega TV used 200 Watts. Out new Philips 42" LCD TV uses 240 Watts.

:(

Can't use them to read - get headaches from them.

Flip or disable your meter for 8 days a month and you'll save a nice amount. Obviously, timing it between readings is essential. The energy companies fuck you as much as they can, it's your obligation to fuck them back.

I now pay about $0.47 per month for electric.

Probably saves me $10-$15 on my electric bill each month. Definitely worth it.

but there are only 3 lights in my tiny apartment that can use them (and are).

I understand the contain mercury.

Check with your local waste management district to find out where to take them.

at least in my area they do

The difference is tiny, but measured over the lifetime of the bulb you'll save money. It's less a cost-saving measure (although it still is) and more of a do-the-right-thing measure. Think globally, act locally, that sort of thing.

replaced out most-used bulbs with them. Electric bill went down about 30% per month. We have now changed about 98% of our bulbs to CFL's, electric bill is very low, despite running 2 AC's almost continuously, washer/dryer, ceiling fan, various electronic stuff.

They are just great.

mark

but 6 of the fixtures in our house are ceiling fans with 3 "can" type lights hanging from it. In the smaller rooms, 1 bulb would be plenty, but since the cans direct the light in 1 direction you pretty much have to have a bulb in each socket for even lighting. So that is 18 bulbs, right there.

I don't personally pay the electric bill, but I hear that there was a fairly significant difference in the bill.


On Edit- I suggested switching to them, as one of the people in the house is a "light switch nazi." I store a lot of stuff under my bed in boxes, and am often on the floor digging to find something. He would walk past the room and not see me and automatically shut off the light, and I'd have to yell at him. I thought with these, I'd get a break from those events, but the behaviour is firmly entrenched in his mind....