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video Change a lightbulb, Save Electricity and money!
The hall bulbs in my apartment (which I maintain) are old incandescent, and as they die I replace them with CFL bulbs to save power - a big difference since they're on 24/7.
You'll Need:
Safety Glasses
Something sturdy to stand on
Backup light - to see what you're doing.
Replacement bulb - match the original in 'wattage' to get similar lighting results.
Suggestions:
Turn off the power first. I can't access the switch/breaker for this bulb since it's locked in the boiler room.
Notes:
I had to recalibrate my camera for the new light bulbs so they looked their natural colour - warm white - hence why the light changes colour from start to finish!
It's really that easy! (No, REALLY, it is!)
Please vote! (and don't forget to vote for everybody!)
You'll Need:
Safety Glasses
Something sturdy to stand on
Backup light - to see what you're doing.
Replacement bulb - match the original in 'wattage' to get similar lighting results.
Suggestions:
Turn off the power first. I can't access the switch/breaker for this bulb since it's locked in the boiler room.
Notes:
I had to recalibrate my camera for the new light bulbs so they looked their natural colour - warm white - hence why the light changes colour from start to finish!
It's really that easy! (No, REALLY, it is!)
Please vote! (and don't forget to vote for everybody!)
Only downside, if you live in a cold climate where you electrically heat, the lost efficiency just adds to the enthalpy of the house anyway ;)
I loves my led bulbs.
Recycled properly, cfl's are way better in almost every way.
Well, well... It was about time someone posted an instructable about changing a lightbulb. Really. Everyone doing this could make so much difference. These things can give light for so much longer than those old ones with corporation-reduced lifetime.
In some countries it is these times forbidden to produce any "normal" lightbulbs and recommended not to buy ones either anymore. This is progress, people.
Without a bit of sarcasm; 4 stars.
I agree 100% with the LED bulbs. I <3 anything led. Problem is that they havent QUITE caught up in lumens/watt and those bulbs that have (in the 90+ lm/w range) caught up are ridiculously expensive.
Unfortunately, I do not believe the majority of people swayed into buying CFL's will treat these properly, especially now that governments are forcing them to. I am a cynic I guess.
Get the word out about the recycling and I can commend that.
1: CFL does cost more, proportionally per bulb, but operating costs DO make up for it if the bulb is used even remotely often. For example: That hallway bulb in my apartment is on 24/7, thus the savings are intrinsic to spending 120-26 = 94 watts * 24 hrs * 365 = 823000 watt hours/year PER FIXTURE. 823 kWh is no small amount of power. Where we are that works out to WAY more than the cost of a bulb, (about 50 CAD$) per year per fixture. Yes. it does add up.
2: There are facilities that take CFL's and recycle their mercury evilness. No you do not want to throw them away. You're kidding yourself if you think the cfl glass isn't already made of recycled material (much cheaper to the manufacturer, or the bulk producer of glass product before the manufacturer).
3: answered in 1, but you have a valid point. Some places it is handy to have a hot bulb - in the winter here it gets to -40C and yeah, that would help. Trouble is we live in an area where gas heating is significantly cheaper than electric (per joule) so it is kind-of wasteful. Other thought: Incandescents on the ceiling heat up the air at the ceiling, where it's not really useful. You still need to spend energy to move that heat around the house. Lastly, in the summertime here, it got to almost +40C. I can't begin to think the cooling bill for a building like this if there was an extra several thousand watts of 'heaters' in the hallways.