It all started several months ago with an audit , a walk around the house with my clipboard and an agenda. The agenda you ask? Complete and utter bulbacide. Ok, seriously… my plan?? My plan was to replace every incandescent light bulb in my entire house. This turned out to be more of a task then I could have ever imagined. There were so many wattages, sizes, shapes, and colors of CFL’s. I mean there was warm white, soft white, full spectrum, full spectrum daylight, halogen white, and many more that I can’t remember! Then there was Kelvin, do I want 2700 Kelvin, 3500 Kelvin, maybe 4100 Kelvin, wait, wait perhaps 6500 Kelvin!?  I had no idea what kind of compact florescent to buy to replace what incandescent bulb. All I knew was I had almost 50 bulbs to replace. (Click Read More to Continue)

The easiest way for me to accomplish this was to write down the size, location, and wattage of the current halogen bulbs. I then took my list down to a local hardware store and starting sizing up compact fluorescents. I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of choices I had. There were in fact different wattages, brands, shapes, and prices. After about an hour I finally figured out what I ones I needed. It just took some serious box reading and comparing, even a bit of price comparing. At this point I returned home and started the bulb replacement effort. I found some were too bright, some were too big for the ceiling fans, and some were way to sterile looking when turned on. After playing musical bulbs, I finally completed my task. So, what were the results?

Not so fancy mathematical results:

100 Watt X 1 = 100 Watts
75 Watt X 5 = 375 Watts
60 Watt X 12 = 720 Watts
40 Watt X 14 = 560 Watts
25 Watt X 15 = 375 Watts
Total incandescent bulb wattage = 2130 Watts

11 Watt X 13 = 143 Watts
13 Watt X 18 = 234 Watts
7 Watt X 16 = 112 Watts
Total compact florescent bulb wattage = 489

A 1641 Watt difference!

I ended up paying $70.48 for the CFL army including sales tax. I also had a few spares to store away incase needed in the future

So here is the incandescent vs. CFL payback figuring 2 hours of use a day.
 
CFL will save 3.28 kWh per day and 98.40 kWh per month and 1197 kWh per year.  At an average of $.18 per kWh the lights will pay for themselves in under 4 months!  That means after the first year I will have paid for the new cfl’s and have an extra $141.68.  Not a bad investment in a bleak economy!

Now it’s time for the CFL regime to take over your home…. however…. the LED army approaches silently.

-Kynan Chambers
www.greenerbakersfield.com
www.greenbakersfield.com