Do Energy Efficient Light Bulbs Save Cash?

raeble

The point is if the bulbs "wasted" heat are warming your house, you don't need the heating on as high as you would have - so although your lighting bill is higher you heating bill is lower.

What evidence do you have to suggest that a lightbulb is warming your house? When I have sat directly under a normal lightbulb of very high wattage(100)it has been very warm, once I move out from its direct path I am significantly cooler. I can see two flaws in your argument.
1. Not all heating systems have a room termostat to control the temperature. The heating is either on or off.
2. Heat will escape the room if you have any gaps or cracks or single glazing.

Looking at energy efficient light bulbs from my own personal point of view it is a purely economic reason I buy them. If I go through a light bulb ever six months it will cost me a £1 a year. Over the course of six years it will cost me £6 for new lightbulbs. If I buy and energy efficient bulb for £3 and it lasts me six years I will save me £3.

zcaprd7

Erm - I don't need any evidence the wasted energy has to be dissipated somehow - I don't think the bulbs are brighter are they?  About 30% of a normal lightbulb's energy is "wasted" as heat.

Your lightbulb warming experiments are to do with feeling infrared radiation, but lightbulbs also warm via convection i.e. the air around the bulb which you wouldn't feel directly.

Yes the heating is either on or off but I imagine you would get hot and turn the heating off (and if you using normal bulbs you would turn it off slightly earlier than if you didn't?)

Yes the heat will escape, but that happens to all types of heating be it a radiator or inefficient light bulb.

One needs to consider a light bulb as a light emitting heater.  However, when an energy saving lightbulb salesman cames along and offers you just a light emmiter and says its cheaper to run, well it would be wouldn't it?

Its like me saying you should remove a radiator from one room in your house and you'll save money!


Now if they cost less than mulitiple normal bulbs because they last longer then I'll accept that as a different argument, but I maintain the estimated savings to your electricity bill have been overstated by said salesmen.

mrtickle

The savings may have been overstated, for the winter when you have the heating on. (Although in my house, the themo is in the hall which is in darkness for 99% of the time. The only thing that controls the thermo, and when the heating is on or off, is the temperature fluctuations in the hall. So my normal bulb in the living room does not heat up the room more to the extent that the central heating benefits and the thermo turns off sooner than it would have done if I didn't have the light on!).

However, no-one could argue that the savings are overstated in the summer when the heating is all off.

For there to be an overall loss from installing energy-saving bulbs over an entire year, your bulbs in the house would have to be contributing a big proportion of the house's heating during the winter.

zcaprd7

Agreed - I have been considering my throw away statement about removing a radiator....

Maybe not removal but I would suggest some careful manipulation of the individual radiator thermomstats could save some cash - I wonder what is the most effecient?

1. Set them all to low?

2. What about having them all on high and then having a short, sharp burst of heating activity?

Other energy saving considerations (at the risk of going of topic) - I guess those poncy new see through kettles could save a few quid?

What about using 40-60 watt normal bulbs where you don't need bright light?

Also trying to avoid the tumble dryer at all, keeping the fridge/freezer on low, hair dryers - its really anything that generates heat that are the killers (especially when electric)

[Deleted User]

Worry less abut light bulbs, but look at the big users of electric.

A 100w light bulb will cost u around 6-7p every 10 HOURS.

A kettle costs roughly 20 times that of a 100w light bulb.

Don't over fill the kettle is the simplist way to save money with out spending money.


Pak

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Kettles don't run for hours on end. The biggest user of electricity in a domestic house is the fridge/freezer.

crankup

I bought a few recently for our house. OSRAM. The packet said Lifetime Guarantee. One of them failed after a week, so I phoned OSRAM and a woman politely took my details, sent me a new one and a pre-paid jiffybag to return the defective one.
Couldnt ask for more - so I guess as long as OSRAM honour the deal, no more lightbulb costs.
No others have failed since.

Cheers,
Crankup

pak2

Kettles don't run for hours on end. The biggest user of electricity in a domestic house is the fridge/freezer.

The point was to look beyond the humble light bulb at the bigger users and ways to reduce their usage with no extra costs.

Darn system stopped me completing this Boss, pls sort this out, or is it to stop spamming, i previewed then posted straight after.

pak

zcaprd7

How much are the OSRAMs ?

aidsy

The more you use energy eff bulbs the more you save thats a fact ;D ;D

seriously my house has about 50% energy bulbs i have Never replaced 1 of these bulbs but i have replaced the standard bulbs many times...
i also think there is a more natural light that comes of the energy eff bulbs than of the standard bulbs..

zcaprd7

Well the fact that energy companies promote there use makes me highly suspicious of their true value....


I think its merely a 'distraction' from the true energy wasters?