Energy saving lightbulbs

Hey all,
I’m looking around for a comparison about different light bulbs to use in the house.

I’m looking at doing renovations at home and i’m looking at being as energy consious as possible.

Anyone know where i can find such info.

Chris

What kind information do you want exactly? The energy usage will be expressed in watts.

Why not try this?

http://www.mrbeams.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=2

http://www.ledwaves.com/pages.php?pageid=22

thanks for the replys, very helpful info.

too bad these aren’t out on any shelves yet, they’d probably give CFLs a run for their money

Unfortunately, LED light has terrible spread.

Compact florescent bulbs are all the rage these days. But they have one disadvantage that doesn’t seem to get much press. They are slow starting. This property has improved quite a bit since the first ones hit store years ago, but it still can take two seconds before they light and a minute to reach full brightness. This make them poor choices for areas that need instant light. I find closets, bathrooms, and halls especially poor areas for compact florescent bulbs. In rooms with overhead lights we mix one incandescent bulb in with the florescent bulbs to get ‘instant on’ light.

Often people stick their head into a room, or especially closets, for just a second or two to look for something. At night I’m in and out of the bathroom before a florescent can warm up. I had a florescent in the back stair but the delay drove me crazy so I put the incandescent back in. People simply don’t want to wait, even a second, for bulbs to light.

I find compact florescent bulbs work well in living spaces where they are turned on and left on for hours, like a workspace, living room, or even dining room. But, even there we use the one incandescent to get the ‘instant on’ of light.

Good thread on a gravity lamp with discussion of different light source’s efficiency too:

if you get CFL’s be sure to get brand names (Phillips or GE) many are knock-offs from China that don’t last more than a year.
or use the older technology - today’s are much faster turning on…

one thing I’ve noticed with CFL energy efficient lamps is that the light doesn’t really fall so perfectly into the “florescent” or “incandescence” white balance categories on my Nikon… It’s hard to even manually calibrate it. I hope that changes in some of the newer cameras because it’s convenient to be able to just go with a pre-set when your in a hurry

Travisimo: The manufacturers are working on hard on warmer CFLs that are closer in color temp to incandescent, that’s why they are in between on the camera settings. They are better than what we have in grocery stores, but worse than an incandescent.

I’ve bought some generic bulbs made in China and had good luck with them. The only ones that I’ve had fail prematurely were CFLs that I bought at Ikea six years ago. Those failed quickly and were ludicrously cool lighting.

http://www.drmediaserver.com/CFLGuide/index.html

Kind of cheesy but I neat idea on how to help everyone understand what kind of CFLs to buy for their needs. Some times it is difficult looking at spreadsheets of different products