HOME LIGHTING        NOTE: WIKI LINKS INDICATED WITH:

I have a relative that cannot stand on chairs or ladders to change lights, but she is on a fixed income.  Purchasing incandescent lights are cheap but she cannot change the light and has to wait until a relative comes over to change the light.  I could go on (and I will).

I visited a local hardware store recently and took some information about lights and put it in a table for you to do your own comparisons.  The prices are not the cheapest for all, but for some, at this store, but to do the apples and apples, I used one store.

Lights have several properties and sometimes you have to read the small print, but in simple terms, try my explanations:

LUMENS:  This is the actual amount of light the bulb makes.  More lumens means it is brighter.

HOURS: Life of the bulb.  Don't confuse "7 year light" with meaning it will last 7 years.  Fine print will say "based on 3 hrs/day. Compare hours.

WATTS: This is the electrical rating of the power it takes to operate the bulb.  More watts mean more electrical power consumed means a higher cost to operate.

You probably relate watts as the measure  you use to determine how bright a light can be.  If you consider apples and apples, that is correct.  In other words, a 100watt (w) incandescent light is brighter than a 60 w incandescent light.  However, a 25 w fluorescent light is actually brighter than a 100 w incandescent light.  Look at the chart, then we can get a feel for some of the reasons you may want to consider different lights.  

What happens to that power? Why does it take less power to make the same amount of light (lumens)?  Put your hand near (DO NOT TOUCH) an incandescent bulb.  It is hot.  Fluorescent bulbs do get warm and some are often too hot to touch (no, don't go try one to find out yourself because you may just find the one that burns you!).  Fluorescent bulbs are actually 4 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs.

The "invisible" part of that, however, is that when you are trying to cool your home, the incandescent light not only consumes more electrical power to give you light as compared to a fluorescent light, but your home's cooling system has to take that heat out. Double whammy in the summer time.  

Well the incandescent bulb costs a lot less, but the fluorescent bulb lasts 10-15 times longer.  Besides, the compact fluorescent is too large for some of my fixtures and does not give that nice warm glow of the incandescent bulb.  I also don't want those long tubes in my home, not everywhere. Sometimes, the compact fluorescent bulbs take a second to come on, and then about a minute to reach full brightness.

These are the decisions you will have to make.  At least you can modify some of your lighting.  Some fluorescent lights do not fit into overhead light fixtures or too well into the table lamps you have.  They do make a "warm white" fluorescent light that does not give the light you associate with the office lighting.

One column that is interesting is the last (far right column).  In this column, I calculated the amount of electrical power costs to run a bulb for 20,000 hours and added it to the amount of money to buy bulb(s) to operate that long.  Of course a lower wattage light will cost less to operate for 20,000 hours but if you are interested in the actual TOTAL money you will spend, here is a place to compare lumens and dollars.

My home lighting costs at night, while watching TV, is very low. I have a table lamp that uses the 8 inch circular fluorescent. In my kitchen, I use 2 warm white, 14w fluorescent tubes over my kitchen cabinets for indirect lighting. It looks really super and I have gotten a lot of comments.  So for low lighting, I use only 50w to light my den/kitchen area.  It is plenty. If I want to read, I go sit under the table lamp.  I have a compact fluorescent bulbs in the other table lamps and in the overhead of the adjoining breakfast room.  I do NOT starve for light.  My closets have the 8 inch circular lights.

Note, I first wrote this in 2000. Now, 2007, there are compact fluorescent lights that fit well in fixtures and come on much faster. Some are more efficient.  I have four 7 w (same as 40 w) bulbs around my home as security lights. So, for a grand total of 28 w, (and 3 for $9)  I comfortably illuminate the exterior of my home at night.  Compare that to folks that burn multiple 65 w or even 100 w flood lights for security.

I'm not in bulb sales, they just interest me. A lot of folks do not take in consideration the technology that is available, nor do manufacturers make lighting fixtures to accommodate them (hint, hint).  You at least have a little information here, in one place, that you may not have had before.

Outside lighting is another issue but it takes in to account other types of bulbs.  Just as a quick summary:

Mercury lights are about twice the efficiency of incandescent but last 10-20,000 hours; they have a slow warm up and the light is usually a bluish-green which some folks don't care for.  They are still used in a lot of street and home lighting.

Metal Halide lights have about the same efficiency and life as most fluorescent lights.  You don't hear much about them because the technology is expensive.  Producing a pure white light that is very bright, is expensive.  You usually see these in outdoor stadiums but I have seen them in department stores where color is not important.

Sodium Vapor lights have become available to the home owner in the past few years.  These are the most efficient lamps currently available to the consumer.  They give a lot more light (5 times as much) than the incandescent bulb and last 10-20,000 hours.  The biggest draw back is that the light has that yellow-orange tint that will wash out many colors. The purpose is strictly illumination for safety and security, and it does this well. Most of our parking lots and highways are using sodium lights now.

Wiki does its thing on Luminous efficacy.

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