Bulb of a Different Light

Tuesday, September 17, 2002
By Ken Sheinkopf

When is a $14 light bulb cheaper than one that costs 50 cents?

I gave a talk to a local civic organization recently, and someone asked me an interesting question. “What energy-saving tip do you give most often that people don’t follow up on?,” they wanted to know. In other words, what advice is the most frequently ignored?

Actually, it was a pretty easy question to answer. I have been talking about the advantages of energy-saving light bulbs for many years, and people often stop me before I finish and let me know that they’re not crazy enough to spend $10, $15 or $20 or more on a light bulb. I’m starting to agree that it’s a concept that requires a fair amount of thought, even if you’ve heard it many times before.

What I find troubling in this is the simple fact that the purchase of these bulbs could be one of the best investments someone could make in their home or apartment, yet the high purchase price of the product scares many people away before they even think it through.

Just consider the following example from the U.S. Department of Energy and see if this makes sense to you. Let’s assume you have a lamp in your living room that has a 100-watt incandescent bulb in it right now, and tonight when you turn on the light, the bulb burns out. I say that if you replace it with a compact fluorescent bulb costing around $14 instead of another incandescent costing 50 cents, you’ll end up saving a lot of money, saving some time and aggravation, getting even more light, and probably cutting down on your air-conditioning use as well.

Ah, ha – you started to stop reading and turn the page, didn’t you? Well, hang on another couple of minutes read the following.

That 100-watt incandescent bulb you might have bought for 50 cents has a rated lamp life of 5 to 6 months if you use it 6 hours a day. Based on an average electric rate of 10 cents per kilowatt hour, the energy cost each year will be $21.90. During the next 4-1/2 years, you’ll replace this bulb 10 times. You’ll thus end up spending more than $103.50 for the bulbs and their energy during this time period.

However, if you instead replace that bulb with a 27-watt compact fluorescent, look at these economics. This one bulb will last the full 4-1/2 years (many have even longer rated lives). The annual energy cost is only $5.91, and you won’t need to purchase another one for that lamp until early 2007. Add the purchase price of this bulb ($14) to the energy costs and you’ll see the total cost is less than $41 – saving you nearly $63 over the life of the lamp.

Let me add a couple of other things to think about. First, the 27-watt compact fluorescent produces about 1800 lumens of light, even more than the 1750 lumens you get from that incandescent. Second, you won’t have to go out and buy new bulbs every six months and take the time to replace the burned-out ones. And third, the energy-efficient bulb puts out 90 percent less heat than does the incandescent, reducing the load on the air conditioner while keeping you a lot more comfortable when you sit near the lamp.

So you tell me: how can you say this isn’t a clear, no-contest argument in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs?

By the way, most hardware and building supply stores carry various types of compact fluorescent light bulbs. If you don’t find one that will fit into your lamp, ask the store manager about special ordering one to meet your needs. The products are available, even though they may not be stocked in all stores.

One more tip: put compact fluorescent bulbs into fixtures that are hard to get at, like in a stairway or the attic. Sometimes the hassle of standing on a ladder or chair to replace a hard-to-reach bulb makes the higher cost of the compact bulb worthwhile on this basis alone.