Rather than start a new
thread, I thought I would add this to an existing thread.
I have received some odd responses to this video:
77: My light bulbs are all CFLs and they have lasted for years, therefore this video is wrong.
78: Americans don't use
lights that way, so there is no point in making a video about 30 seconds or less.
For 77 I wonder about how long lights are left on. I suspect they are left on a lot and that leads to 78.
And for 78, I think what is being said is that most americans just leave lots and lots of lights on. Many of them 24 hours per day.
I think another point that somebody might get from the video is that they should leave their CFL lights on a long time so they don't burn out as quickly.
So, I wish to take a moment to explore one house with one person. Let's focus on an evening in winter. Let's say it gets dark at six. Let's call this "scenario 222": The porch light is simply left on 24x7. A single switch in the living room turns on 8 lights. A single switch in the kitchen turns on 8 more. When it is dark, this person turns on the kitchen and living room lights for the evening - until they go to bed at 10. Let's say something similar happens in the morning for an hour. And we add an hour in the morning for four lights in the bedroom. Then there is a sprinkle of lights here and there for hallways, closets, bathrooms, etc. but in this scenerio, those lights are turned off when not in use.
So with a CFL, let us suppose that all lights are a "60 watt equivalent" (15 watts). The porch light is 10.8kwh. The kitchen is 18kwh and the living room is 18kwh. The bedroom is 1.8kwh. Total of 48.6kwh. Maybe all the rest of the lighting needs will round it out to 50.
At ten cents per kwh, that's $5 per month for one person. Which, for the winter time, is about the national average for one person.
Let us suppose that this one person in scenario 222 spends each evening on the internet and watching television. Both in the living room. Sometimes the evening meal is delivered and sometimes the evening meal is a microwaved box of something from the freezer.
I wish to make a suggestion for this person in scenario 222. First, turn off the kitchen lights when you are not in the kitchen. Second, turn off the porch light except when needed - or better yet, leave it on and put a motion detector sensor on it. Third, modify the lighting in the living room so that there is one light bulb for tv or computer use, and then go ahead and use all 8 when you really need the illumination. This cuts about 44kwh. So if the total lighting was 50, we have, with a few simple things, eliminated 88% of the lighting bill. The lighting bill is now 6kwh per month. About 60 cents per month.
Now I suggest that we change all of the light bulbs from CFL to incandescent. Let us assume that the energy saving claims of the CFL are accurate (which I don't think they are - but that's a different discussion for a different day). So all lighting just popped up to 24kwh. But wait .... we're talking about winter. All of the lights, except for the one outside, give off heat. In fact, they give off radiant heat - far more efficient than the convective heat that is used in most homes. Without changing the thermostat, the heater comes on less often because of the heat given off by the lights. Effectively, the power for all incandescent lighting, in the winter, is free. Because every dollar spent on lighting is a dollar saved on heating. Now there are people that could argue that if you position your light bulb next to the ceiling and insulate poorly, then some of that heat would be lost. True - but that too can be mitigated. Further, if you direct the light (and heat) to the person, you can heat the person and, thus, be able to turn down the thermostat thus saving even more money.
So:
CFLs in scenario 222: $5 per month
a little optimization: $0.60 per month
convert that to incandescent: maybe $2.40 per month, maybe $0.00 per month, maybe -$20.00 per month
