Re: [GBlist] Regular vs. Fluorescent Lighting

["Pat Ballentine" <ballentine@voyager.net>]

Donna
I've replaced all my lighting in my home with flourescents.  I retrofitted
over a period of time, replacing the most often used lights first.  The most
difficult to find lights were the chandelier lights, which are available
from Real Goods at www.gaiam.com.

As an example of the life-cycle-cost analysis, my savings would be about
$137 for the 6 light chandelier.  I used that saving to replace the old
fixture and to take out the dimmer switch . (Flourescents usually won't work
with dimmer switches.)  So I have a nice new look and it didn't really cost
anything.

CFLs (compact flourescent lamps) have large life-cycle-cost savings over
incandescent bulbs.  $50-$70 would be common.

In a 1995 study at the Florida Solar Energy Center researchers totally
retrofitted a home with all CFLs. This house was monitored for a year and it
was found that most electricity was used in the kitchen and outdoors.  There
was a big peak in use at Christmas.  When calculataions were done, the
savings were about 61% in electricity use.  This was about $200 per year.
(from Home Energy Magazine Jan/Feb 1997)

A caution--you may not know about the increasing electricity use of "phantom
loads" or "standby use" of small electronic equipment.  We are using more of
these items all the time, so try to find things that don't use either
digital clocks or have LED "on" lights.

Go for it Donna--this is good for your pocketbook besides being good for the
planet!
Pat Ballentine
>
> On Friday, August 23, 2002, at 03:52 , Donna Watkins wrote:
>
> > I've always avoided fluorescents because of the research [with school
> > children] of it agitating the nervous system.  Obviously the energy
> > choice
> > goes against this.  We are building a new home and I'm wondering if we
> > should use fluorescents anywhere.  Does anybody have any comments on
> > this?
> > Our son was bothered by the fluorescent lighting which is why we
> > avoided it
> > when we built last time.  He's grown and gone, but if it affected him it
> > must have some impact on us also?



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