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Save money with CF bulbs

Seth Godin has written a post about compact fluorescent lightbulbs. He has urged other bloggers to write about them in the hopes of gaining wider usage of the bulbs. I wrote a post on my site about how the money-saving aspect needs to be stressed.

Seth has mentioned that he will post a link to your site if you trackback to his post. I'll also be glad to do the same.

Posted by Andrew Maury on 01/03/2007 09:12 PM

Comments (6)

lightbulbs, links

6 Comments on Save money with CF bulbs

JAN

2007

Thanks for the link

Great information. I'll do what you recommend Andrew. Saves a lot of money that few know about.

Ken

Great to hear, Ken. Comments like that make me think I am right in thinking that they should be marketing these bulbs by talking about how much money the can save.

MAR

2007

I actually saw a special on tv with energy saving tips. One of them was to use compact fluorescent bulbs. I had never heard of them before.

So actually the next time I had to buy lightbulbs I went to the store and I started trying to find them. I was looking at a huge section of lightbulbs and it took some time, but I finally found the shelves with the compact fluorescents. It was a very small section at the top end of the whole section. There happened to be a ladder covering most of that display.

Well I didn't really know anything about them, so I started reading all of the packaging. Honestly I really got confused. I couldn't figure out which type of bulb that I needed to get. I didn't know if the shape would still fit in my light socket. It looks like the part where you plug it in is a different shape. And then I didn't know if these would be brighter/darker what effect they had on the actual light. I gave up and got some regular bulbs. (I should mention my shopping companion happened to be a two-year old :)

So I was interested by this post. Actually can people reading this help answer a few questions for me...

The part where you screw the bulb into the lamp looks different than a regular lightbulb. Do I need some kind of attachment?
What happens to the light - does it look different brighter/darker etc more white/yellow?
What watt (the fluorescents have a different measurement unit - I can't remember what it is right now) but which strength would be pretty standard?
Are their light fixtures this would be more/less suited for or can I use them on any light?

Thanks for your help.

MAR

2007

Hi Angie. I'm certainly not an expert on CF bulbs, but I'll try to help you out with some answers.

1) In my experience with them, they screw to the socket just as a normal bulb would. I've never needed an attachment.

2) The light seems pretty much the same to me, but I also use them in lamps with shades for the most part. I had a hard time finding bulbs that weren't super-bright at first, but found them after looking a bit.

3) The bulbs that I have do list the wattage,but you'll probably want to look at the lumens. Take a look at the table on this site for some more info. It's on the right side just a little ways down.

4) You can use them on any light.

Hope that helps you some!

MAR

2007

Andrew,

Thanks for the info. I am going to make my way back to the store (without two year old) and try again.

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