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Home > Spent a pretty penny on light bulbs...

Spent a pretty penny on light bulbs...

February 11th, 2009 at 06:29 pm

Okay, I totally LIED. No, I am just a dork. It wasn't inentional.

Our home, we purchased new as an energy star home. Since the lightbulbs never burned out (most going on 7 years strong) and our electric bill was always so low, I assumed we had all CFLs. I said so much in this blog.

Dh only recently pointed out to me that we don't have CFLs. Doh!

When we first moved in, before kids, we did not use like half the house. So this can explain SOME of the light bulb life. But not really. Only 3 of 6 kitchen lights had burned out. (We have used the kitchen lights about every day for just over 7 years).

Anyway, an outside light, a garage light, and a couple of family room lights burned out, so dh replaced them with CFLs in the last year. This is when he imformed me of the truth.

3 kitchen lights had burned out, and 3 were still going so strong. Plenty of light left. But I suggested we go ahead and replace those with CFLs. We decided to keep the other bulbs (probably with little life left) to eventually replace the dining room lights that we never use. They may last forever at this rate, I don't know.

He ended up getting the lights at Home Depot. They are recessed lights and he got the "soft light" CFLs.

OMG. They are SO BRIGHT. It could be that we have 6 instead of 3 working bulbs now, too. Funny thing is he accidentally got some that are much smaller. They look fine and our PLENTY bright. So we just went with it.

I love all the light in the kitchen now!

I also talked dh into replacing the bathroom lights (the kids' bathroom which is used more - has EIGHT bulbs) and since we did like the kitchen lights, he went back out and bought 6 more of the same lights to replace all the hallway lights. Those probably didn't have much life left either - as we use them so much. We will give the old bulbs away. The bathroom ones may have a lot of life since that bathroom we never used until the kids were much older.

Dh also replaced the one already flourescent light fixture over the kids' shower. Phew. I haven't showered with light in AGES. He was really pissing me off not taking care of it. I am happy now, but I also see how dirty the shower is. LOL. But I guess that's what got this whole lightbulb binge going.

Um yeah, I Expect WAY lower electric bills for this investment. We shall see! If we do notice a substantial improvement we will probably do another lightbulb binge. That was 22 bulbs. We still have about 40 left inside. Don't even ask. 4-bulb fixtures in every bedroom left (5 rooms). A fixture in our closet (I assume the same - it's a big closet). 8 bulbs in our bathroom. 8 bulbs in the entry way and formal dining room. Dh replaced a burned out light outside. We have more to replace outside, eventually.

If our bill is lower (since we replaced all the highly used bulbs) then it will be worth it. If not, I think we'll pass until they burn out. Could be a while...

The packaging says "Last 4 times as long as standard bulbs." Dh is like, "How long do these last????" I pointed out to him our current bulbs were anything but standard bulbs. Standard bulbs do not last 7+ years usually. I had to burst his bubble that these probably won't last 30 years... Of course, I wish!

Dh also invested in an extended light bulb changer. We have one stray light above the stairs, about 20 feet up, that we thought we could never reach. Now we can, but it made it a much simpler task to change so many bulbs. So I think that was a good investments. (The recessed lighting in particular - it was easy to reach with this thing).

For whatever reason we have ONE room in the house with no ceiling lights. Go figure. Cheap stupid builder. LOL. But this was a cost saver buying new construction. We never had to buy any lamps. But for our living room. & it really sucks compared to the lighting in the rest of the house. So I don't know know why they skimped on that. Seems they could have done ONE more room.

Anyway, that was our investment and project for the weekend.

I can't say I noticed much difference in our bill from the few CFLs that dh installed prior. But I expect to notice a bigger difference with the mass bulb change.

5 Responses to “Spent a pretty penny on light bulbs...”

  1. whitestripe Says:
    1234381387

    wow, there are eight lights in your kids bathroom?
    the house we live in at the moment is only fairly new (probably no more than 8 years ol) and we i just counted: we have 15 lights in our whole house, and 4 outside.

  2. Caoineag Says:
    1234395638

    Yeek, I have 20 counting them inside and out. Fortunately we only use 7 on a regular basis (5 of those are for the living room though).

  3. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    1234403952

    I think it was common in the 1960's and into the '70's to have no overhead lighting in the living room. Table lamps only was the fashion. The previous owner of my house had followed the fashion and removed the overhead lighting in the living room. We restored overhead lighting, requiring three bulbs, CFL, of course.

  4. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1234409146

    In my apartment I would not use CFL bulbs.

    Why? Because for some reason, all the bulbs I have burn out constantly. In the 3 years I've lived here, I have replaced the bulbs in my dining area 5 times, replaced the bulbs in my two living room lamps 3 times, replaced all 3 closet bulbs at least 3 times, and then also replaced my bedroom overhead light (which is out again - but I can't get to it to replace it - my dad did it for me before!)

    There have been times where the only lights I have in my place are in the kitchen, the bathroom and my desk in my bedroom.

    If I were having to pay for my electric, I might be willing to experiment with one CFL in one of the spots that is always burning out - but if the CFL burned out as fast - wouldn't be very cost effective for me.

  5. monkeymama Says:
    1234466289

    I've never lived in another home with any overhead lighting (but for hall, kitchen, bath).

    Actually, I think our condo had all overhead lighting too so yeah, that is why we never bought a lamp. The condo was built in the 60s or 70s but revamped in the 90s. I guess all the other homes I have lived in were built in the 60s/70s. Hmmmmm.

    We may spend a lot of bulbs this weekend, but before that I am not sure if we have really every bought many otherwise! Just a weird thing.

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