Energy Project: Switching to Compact Flourescent Bulbs

Current Power consumed:	56.64 kwh/month	% of total power usage:	10%
Forecasted power conserved:	40.92 kwh/month	Forecasted % reduction in power usage:	7%
Cost:	$28.67	Payback Time:	10 months
Forecasted Money Saved:	$3.05/month	Time to Implement:	90 minutes

Replacing your lights with compact fluorescent bulbs is on the very top of every environmental todo list these days. And no wonder. By chance, I am the proud owner of a single CFL, and in my energy audit discovered that it runs using 11%-20% the power of my other lamps.

On top of that, studies support that compact fluorescent bulbs have ten times the lifespan of normal bulbs, which means that I won’t have to worry about replacing them for a long time. Bottom line: they should also save me money.

For someone like me, who’s vaguely retarded when it comes to home DIY projects, this one was a bit intimidating. Light bulbs aren’t the most idiot-proof of devices, which is probably why there so many jokes about changing them. (My favorite one? Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?  A: Fish.) 

Here’s how I went about it:

1.  Take a light bulb inventory
To start the project, I took an inventory of all of the light bulbs in our apartment, making notes of the type of bulb, its location, and its wattage. I ended up with the following:

• 9 75W Par30 Flood lights in recessed ceiling fixtures
• 4 50W MR-16 halogen lights
• 2 60W standard light bulbs to fit in lamps
• 4 60W standard light bulbs to fit in ceiling mounted, covered light fixtures
• 1 40W standard light bulb
• 1 3 way 150 watt type A light bulb

2. Figure out what equivalent CFL bulbs will work in the stead of your incandescents.
This was the part I was the most nervous about at the beginning of this exercise.  Wattage is a concept that I’m reasonably familiar with when it comes to light bulbs, but what does all of that other stuff mean? PAR? MR?

To figure this out yourself you’ll need to understand a little bit about how light bulbs are named. Each bulb name has three important parts you need to care about:

1.  The wattage (ex: 40W, 60W, 100W)

The wattage is the thing with the W after it. This is how much energy the bulb consumes. What’s tricky is that we automatically think of wattage as brightness: a 100W bulb is brighter than a 60W bulb. But with CFLs, they are just as bright and use significantly less wattage. 

Manufacturers and retailers understand that we think this way and have made it easy by showing the old, equivalent wattage on the packaging of most CFL products (see picture at left).  This way, it’s easy to pick up a bulb with the right brightness.

If, for some reason, you’re having trouble, use this general rule of thumb. The CFL will have around 20% the wattage of your equivalent incandescent. So a 25W incandescent = a 5W CFL, and a 60W incandescent = a 12W CFL. Well, actually somewhere around 14W. It's a bit inaccurate, but it should be close enough to get you in the right bulb range that you need.

2. The bulb shape code (ex: A, PAR, MR, R, etc.)
The bulb shape code defines the shape of the bulb, and sometimes whether it is rated for indoor or outdoor use. Keeping the same bulb shape when you transition to CFLs will help maintain your current light aesthetic. However, most lighting fixtures and sockets can support a couple of interchangeable bulb shapes.

3. The bulb width (a number: 30, 16, etc.)
The maximum width of the bulb can be figured out by multiplying the number by 1/8 inches. Ex: for a PAR30 bulb, the maximum width of that bulb can be 3.75 inches.

A lot of bulbs that have the same bulb width and wattage are interchangeable, even if they have a different bulb shape code. For example, a BR30 and a PAR30 could be swapped out. You might lose a bit in aesthetics, since the bulb shapes are slightly different, but everything should fit and function.

The reason this is important is that CFLs aren’t yet made in all of the diverse shapes and sizes that incandescent lights are. When I had to make the mapping between my light bulbs, I had to improvise a little.

4.  If it's an odd light, double check for size and fit
I didn't have the challenge of dealing with any complex lighting fixtures, but you might. If so, double check your selection against PSE's list of where to use CFLs.

To figure out what you’re going to map onto, visit the website of the store you plan on visiting and see what types of lights they have available. I went to home depot, so I was able to scope out what light bulbs they carried ahead of time on their website (the n:vision line).

My mapping looked like this:

• 9 75W Par30 Flood lights in recessed ceiling fixtures =>  R30 65W Flood lights.  I lost a bit of brightness here, but it was the best mapping I could find.
• 4 50W MR-16 halogen lights => These little halogens do not have an equivalent CFL size that I’ve been able to find anywhere. There are some LED equivalents, but they are less bright, and fairly expensive at $35/each. Since these lights are only 30W anyhow, I’m going to wait until they go out to consider replacing them, and just use them less frequently.
• 6 60W standard light bulbs => 14W spiral bulbs
• 1 40W standard light bulb => 9W spiral bulb
• 1 3-way 150 watt type A light bulb => 23W spiral bulb.  While 3-way switch options are available for CFLs, I don't really need one, and they are harder to come by. I'll just put a bright bulb in this lamp.

3.  Make sure you've settled on a good brand
You want your CFLs to last, right?  Make sure the bulbs you’re picking up are good ones. Popular Mechanics tested all of the most popular bulb brands, and it’s a good idea to double check that you’re getting a decent one. Home Depot only carries the n:vision line, which are cited as good bulbs that are “slow to warm”. We’ll see how that turns out.

4.  Look for local deals and incentives
Looking on the Puget Sound Energy website, I saw that they had a deal with Home Depot where they provide coupons for CFL bulbs. 

When I arrived at Home Depot and saw their actual setup, I was completely blown away. Their CFL section was right by the door. Each bulb selection had a set of coupons underneath them. The coupons often provided discounts of 50-75% off the retail price of the bulb, and depending on the coupon, you could use 4-8 of the same coupon per transaction.  I ended up with about 15 coupons in my hands, a bag full of bulbs, and an extremely nice check-out clerk.

The deal was, frankly, amazing. I ended up replacing every light bulb in my home minus the halogens for less than thirty dollars. Incandescents would have been far more expensive. My payback period should be less than a year at that rate.

5.  Use caution and common sense when changing your bulbs
I am a world class klutz. I fall down stairs unprovoked. I’m always finding bruises and scrapes on my body that I’m not sure where they came from.  So knowing there are small quantities of mercury in the CFL bulbs I was changing out was a little bit worrying. If anybody was likely to break a bulb, it was going to be me.

Concerned, I made sure I had an attack plan going in:
1. I made sure I turned off all of the lights in my home so they weren’t hot to the touch when I changed them.
2. I reviewed the EPA’s steps for how to handle breaking a CFL, and ensured I had the materials available for a clean-up if I needed them.
3. I found a very sturdy step stool.

The act of replacing the bulbs was easier than I thought it would be. Some of my ceiling fixtures look the littlest bit wonky, but it’s a small price to pay.

6.  Just throw away your incandescents?
It’s painful for me to say, but I couldn’t find any local programs that support incandescent recycling.  Even my local recycling website told me to just landfill them. I’m going to keep a few around for a rainy day, but it looks like most of these are going in the trash. Bummer.

Overall, this project was inexpensive, way easier than I thought it would be, and didn't take much time at all. Not only am I conserving energy, but I'm also getting a lot of positive energy from doing it. If you haven't taken the 90 minutes to do it yourself, I would strongly recommend it.

Comments

[SeattleBrad]

I enjoy your blog, and I hate to rain on your parade, but you are missing a point about light bulbs. Incandescent bulbs use about 5% of their energy for light, and about 95% of their energy for heat. Most people call this "waste heat" but there's the rub. In the winter (and non-cooling) months, that heat isn't wasted, it's helping to heat your home. If you replace the bulbs with fluorescents, you save money on lighting, but now your furnace has to run more often to heat your home, because the incandescents were helping to heat it. So, bottom line, fluorescents save on COOLING costs, but not anything else. If you don't have air conditioning in your home (like in Seattle), it's a waste of time and money. And fluorescents contain mercury which is bad for the landfills.

[Brave New Leaf]

Hi SeattleBrad-

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Like with most of these new green technologies, it's extremely important to realize that there are trade-offs to be made with all of them. And there certainly are with CFLs.

Mercury is one of those trade-offs. However, studies show that the potential mercury seeping into landfills are less or equal to the mercury emissions saved out of coal fired plants from not using the electricity.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/home_journal_news/4217864.html

In addition, recycling CFLs is extremely easy around the Puget Sound. Not only does Ikea recycle the bulbs, but a large list of local retailers will accept them (see link below). I would NOT advocate installing CFLs in your home unless you are prepared to take responsibility for recycling them properly. http://www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/wdidw/material.asp.

In terms of the heat generated by incandescents, you have an excellent point. If you live in an extremely well insulated home in a Northern state, you might benefit from the additional warmth that incandescents can provide. But, if you can heat your home using a more efficient, or lower-emission source of energy, using CFLs is a step in the right direction.

For example, using a gas based heat solution instead of lights (w/ electricity via coal amongst other sources), would reduce your greenhouse gas emissions by 60%. Probably a bit less here in the Pacific Northwest since our power mix uses significantly less coal, but still an improvement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4922496.stm

Or, if you are investigating solar heating, like I am, you stand to improve your footprint even more.

Everyone using electrical heat in cold climates should do the math and consider the full picture of their energy and heat uses, as per SeattleBrad's excellent point.

[Beth Terry]

Another thing you might want readers to consider is the packaging of the CFLs that they choose. Some are packaged in plastic blister packs that are a devil to open and add more plastic to the environment. Others are packaged in recycled cardboard. The packaging too should be a consideration.

In our house, we actually did break a CFL because the packaging was so difficult to open! Here's the full story:

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2007/10/broken-cfls-scary-halloween-story.html

I finally did find plastic-free CFLs at Ace Hardware. They sell a 5-pack packaged in cardboard only. The package doesn't even have a plastic window!