Cost $80 (there was a sale at Costco). My electric bill went down $80 a month immediately.

Around 1998, one at a time. I calculated my bill went down from $70 to about $60 at the time. It was a small house, and I had good practices too, of keeping lights off, and not wasting much energy.

The really interesting thing is that after 15 plus years, I still have one of the old lights in my new home, as a hall light. Even more interesting is how well they have made them fail earlier, as the planning for obsolescence has taken hold. Back then they cost over $10 each, and now they're around $2.

and still have the first one in service...if you calculate how many incandescent bulbs it would have taken in that time it would more than pay for the CFL bulbs.

I first started using them in a drop light that I used every day in my work... because the incandescent bulbs do not like to be shaken and burn out all the time...and a CFL would last until I broke it.

I am tasked with changing light bulbs for my mother. I swear to God, I had to change one ever ten days--the burnout rate on those is phenomenal. It was, and still is, like pulling teeth to get her to change. I had to nearly force her as "I don't like the light," or "they are too dim" or "I hate to change anything ever in my life." (ha) But I did and now it's more like once ever few months.

A lot of hers are enclosures, so they burn out quicker, as they don't like them as they get hot. Plus it took them a while to narrow down the size, so they didn't dink on the glass, or the neck was too big for some enclosures.

They have them for motion lights now too, and they have problems with making them fit in those too. I took the cover off on one to make it work.

still incandescent: Fridge and Oven.

That's it. Everything else is CFL, or high efficiency halogen.
I'm sure the long term savings are substantial.

next up, I gotta get dirty: more insulation in the attic.

One of the big box stores has Phillips 60 W equivalent Warm White LED bulbs for $5.97, and 40 W Equivalent for $4.97. The color balance is very good and easy on the eyes, much better than CFLs.

The 60 W bulbs use 11W of power.

Not enough room in the vehicle for a bass and its amp/cabinets. Hope they make a slightly larger version in the next few years so I can make the switch!

Were I in the market, and if I had enough money to spend up front. I like the idea of not spending the money on gas. The environmental thing, weirdly, is almost secondary. I care about it, no doubt. But I really enjoy not just wasting extra money.

By the way, you can still save money, even if you have to put in 100 watt light CFL's, as they still use less than a regular light bulb.

When an appliance wears out, get a more efficient one, bulb swapping, insulation, etc.

I am also a maniac when it comes to vehicle maintenance and tire selection. Every bit helps.

electric bill went down when really the story should be I changed my light bulbs and my bill when down. In a separate but related story, my electric car uses less electricity than than the difference between my incandescents and a house full of CFLs.


It was just off-putting when I read headline only to find support for a different argument.

Talk about your bait and switch...

Same thing happened when I bought a LEAF. Checked my electric bill and saw I was paying 21¢/kwh. Changed my electric provider and will be paying 12¢/kwh, and from 100% renewables! Also did an electric usage inventory to see if my 100 amp service could take the addition of a charging station (yes). Now thinking about a PV system for our south-facing roof. On a related topic we recently upgraded our gas furnace from 80% efficiency to 96% efficient and got a warmer house in the process. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that the house didn't lose a great deal of heat over night when the old furnace gave up the ghost and the sun alone provided enough heat during the day. We were glad to get the new furnace but going without one for a few days was was not the hardship I imagined. I'm convinced there are significant savings to be had from conservation efforts and small life-style changes; the low hanging fruit of the energy-climate change-resource depletion solutions.

(caring for sick parent) and found that it had totally-inadvertent geothermal heat. It is a ranch-style home, built in the 1960s with a deep crawl space (48"?) and "zero" insulation in the floor.

When the furnace went out on the coldest night of the year (30 below as I recall), the temperature in the (poorly-insulated, single-pane glass windows) house never dropped below 55. The repair guy who came at nine the next morning was shocked; we had on an extra layer or two and that was all.

After that, we just shut the furnace off at night. IMO, that's the perfect temperature for sleeping anyway.

which Graham Hill sold to Discovery Communications for $10 million. Hill lives in a $287,000 SoHo apartment and spent $365,000 for renovations. Oh look! A Murphy bed!

Pseudo-environmentalism is a cash cow for the hipster crowd. Me, I compost.

But that's not the point, is it? He could have purchased a small house in Queens or on Long Island. He could have found real estate in New Jersey. His home could be solar-powered, with a pellet stove and a yard in which he could grow veggies and herbs.

And compost.

He could also have sold his website to an environmentally active group instead of a huge entertainment concern. Maybe for a million bucks instead of ten. But hey... guy's gotta make a living, amiright?

This quote from the OP is telling at least to me.

when I changed all our lamps to CFLs in one big fell swoop it made a noticeable difference in our electrical usage.

When I bought my Chevy Volt, I switched my electricity billing to a variable rate plan. The Super Off-Peak rates between 0100 and 0500 hours are about 1/4 the peak rates during the morning and evening (winter) or middle of the day and evening (summer). Naturally, I've programmed the Volt to charge during these earning morning hours. I also program the dishwasher and the clothes washer to run during these Super Off-Peak hours. The net result is that my total electricity bill has not gone up. It is almost like getting free charging for the Volt.

The actual Super Off-Peak charging for the Volt turns out to cost a little more than 60 cents per charge in the winter and a little more than 50 cents per full charge in the summer. Even in the mid-Atlantic winter, I'm getting about 40 miles of driving per charge--a bit more than the 38 miles-per-charge spec by GM. In short, in terms of real world driving range/gas mileage equivalents, I'm paying less than 50 cents per gallon. My typical driving does not exceed 40 miles per day, so the Volt's gasoline engine almost never needs to kick in. In the past four months, for example, my Volt has burned less than 3 gallons of gasoline.

And now it looks like a good time to switch all of my light fixtures to LED--to make the electricity bill go down, even though I've been using the compact fluorescents for many years.

so the fuel doesn't get old before you use it up. Something like Stabil.

many are little better than CFL... some are much more efficient.