Cut your energy bill in half FOR FREE!

ITS TRUE! ( if you live in a town that does this) AN JUST BY CHANGING A LIGHT BULB! Since it uses less power it will save you money AND help the environment.

Step 1 Materials

a lamp with an incandescent.
your local PUD or energy supplier, got them and see if they do a program for energy saving, mine did and hey gave us 2 boxes of cfl's, in each box it had 2 smaller oxes with 6 cfl's in it! thats a total of 24 FREE cfls and as they burn out, they give you more!

Comments

[tankguy]

You "work art afurniture strore"? (step 4) lol I think you mean you work at a furniture store.

[kkarwan]

why does it matter he just mistyped not trying to be mean but seriously...

[coolsciencetech]

just wondering...
say you lived somewhere that is usually cold enough that you would need a heater on most of the year... wouldn't incandescent bulbs work just as well because the heat that they give off is warming your house causing your heating bill to go down? Efficiency wouldn't really matter if your house needs to be heated...

[mguer133]

You would need 10*100w regular lightbulbs to heat up a small room in average temperatures. And that's lighting all the time at full power... does not work out does it.

[itsthatsguy]

Yes and no, the incandescents heat is almost nothing, they get to about 90 degrees, but, they only heat things in close proximity and wouldn't make a difference on your houses temp.


Aside from that cranking the dial up a few costs a lot less than using incandescents.

Sources: I live in the cold, in Tahoe to be exact =).

[Kush_Slayer]

what do they do with the mercury in the cfls or have the environmentalists not figured that out yet, also they dont work as well in the cold(like up in north dakota)

[itsthatsguy]

hey the mercury is used to conduct electricity so they work! lol

[KittyF]

The murcury SCARES me to DEATH!! my grandkids keep breaking the bulbs when they're jumping around their room and then they breath the vapors while sitting there scared to tell me they did it, and I'm NOT using those bulbs.

Another side benefit of CFL bulbs is they're known to raise your blood sugars when they're on, but as much as 20 points. No CFLs for me. I'm stocking up on good old fashioned bulbs.

[mguer133]

LEDs don't break...

[levitts]

they *KEEP* breaking lightbulbs??!? your grandkids need DISCIPLINE and MUCH closer supervision

[KittyF]

Well, the bulbs are on a lamp that's over the bed and different times they've broken two or three over the last ten years bu jumping on the bed, or falling off the bunk bed..

not HUGE, about normal for five kids ages 15-4. but now that I know about the mercury I sure try to clear the room ASAP to protect them best I can.

[Tinderbox]

I think he means after the bulb's service-time. Sure mercury conducts electricity, and I'd be pretty happy at saving some significant sterling on my electricity bill, though you can't just chuck these in the bin for obvious, runny-metal reasons! So how do you dispose of these CFLs, and are we sure that they're safe? they must get pretty warm, and seeing as a regular lightbulb's vacuum can 'go', is there a risk of mercury leakage?

[itsthatsguy]

i think CFL's are standard 14.6 PSI so i think they wont break, and its vapourus mercury. Ohh no mad hatters.

[mcarrell]

Go L.E.D. The upfront cost is coming down and even if it didn't, they last long enough and use so little energy, it will pay for itself in 2 years or less... NO MERCURY TOXIC WORRIES!

[frollard]

That's awesome that your municipality gives them away!

Another tip for saving half - turn half your lights out!

Seriously, if your power bill went DOWN by 100 dollars a month, you're over-consuming for lighting. On my vanity mirror in the bathroom, I unscrewed partially every other bulb == half savings.

[KittyF]

we have so few lights in our house that I can't see to sew or read during the night and during the day I need lights on.

[frollard]

You'd be surprised how far you can get with directional task lighting. Sometimes its nice to have a few bright floods for larger projects, but 'to read' especially you only need a tiny lamp.

[KittyF]

yeah, that's a good idea. I need to clean out some corners and tuck away some floor lamps. maybe tether them to the wall so they don't get knocked over. (grandchildren and cats) thanks

[DELETED_monkeyman1140]

(removed by author or community request)

[frollard]

Same here - I shower in pitch black...still not sure why, but its a neat experience every time to do the 'experience life like a blind person' trick - although I did have to switch to 2-in-1 shampoo conditioner because doing them in the wrong order sucks :P CFLs or LED everywhere else in my house. Shame the projector is a 300 watt xenon bulb.

[KittyF]

I've always enjoyed bathing by candle light or a kerosene lamp. pitch black just seems like work. LOL

[frollard]

It's not so bad - like I said its a 'learn to use your other senses' thing - not too much effort especially if you familiarize yourself with the shower controls, soap location, and where the towel is :)

[KittyF]

LOL it's the location of the soap that's my worst problem. that stuff is so slippery that It always ends up SOMEWHERE on the floor of the tub.

[mguer133]

If you have a window in your bathroom, shower when you can use daylight or at least a minimum of it.

[lr10cent]

I've read, although I no longer remember where, that if your electricity comes from coal, then using a compact fluorescent results in less mercury in the environment, even if you throw the bulb away. Of course if you break it by accident inside your house, then the amount that gets released is focused in a bad place.

[itsthatsguy]

its a small amount of mercury, if you break open a window leave close the door, although its such a small amount you'd need to break a few for it to rack up to anything, aside from that i don;t see how the mercury amounts are affected by type of energy, i mean electrons are electrons, unless it has to do with the burning of coal, i will look into it

[12V]

i made a 12v cfl ! there is a lot of black on the electrodes.

[itsthatsguy]

Interesting, but how? is the arc voltage 12, or is it being kicked up to standard?

[jmooresh]

I'm glad to see the new LED moniors and TV's are arriving as they are much better for energy use and create less toxic waste. For lighting, I suggest installing skylights or solartubes to bring in natural light. And go to bed at night! Most of us are sleep deprived and the extra rest would do us good.

[Marcos]

Does this really qualify as an instructable? Would it have been posted at all if there weren't a contest involved? I'm having trouble understanding how common knowledge qualifies as showing how to actually do something. Besides, it only took one person, and there's no punch line!

[itsthatsguy]

Some people are still in the dark about cfls (pun intended) so its not common knowledge, the point of contests are to get5 people to make instructables and help people and the country, since i do give step by step instructions it is indeed an instructable.

[macruadhi]

I love the idea of saving money, but CFLs light drives me nuts. It is too artificial, and tests have been done that show fluorescent light causes migraines and general malaise.

[arthurcorbin]

please provide studies. I teach lighting and nothing supports this claim. Older fluorescents with magnetic ballasts did cause headaches and fatigue in some people. Newer systems with electronic ballasts do not. thanks.

[atombomb1945]

Try LED Bulbs. They cost a bit more, but use VERY little power and give off a clean white light. The strobe effect of Florescent lights can be one of the reasons for the headaches. LED's just stay on.

[itsthatsguy]

lol one f the points is the cfl's are free, anyway leds do have some strobe as well, l ights cycle at 60 herts or change positive to negative 60 times a second leds are light emitting DIODES, this means they only light if electricity is going in a certain directions do to these affects leds cycle slower, being on for 30 cycles and off for 30 meaning these have more of a strobe affect thats visble. I'm fluent enough with electronics to be an entry level electronic technical, i get my facts from educational books! lol

[thetech101]

The newest LED bulbs use AC to DC converters. Only the more expensive bulbs have this. The cheap 15 dollar bulbs don't, but the more expensive 40 dollar bulbs do. This means that they don't flicker. They can use as little as 2 watts per hour of use. It's more cost effective to build your own lights and use an AC to DC "wall brick" to power them. For most comercially available LEDs, every 3 watts worth of diodes puts out the same amount of light as a 60 incandescent bulb. For most households (at least in my area), it would take 10 to 12 months to cover the cost of the homebuilt lights. And more than 2x as long for the pre-built, store-bought bulbs.

[Tool Using Animal]

yes and the ballast of cfls boosts the frequencyinto the kHz range, nobody can see that flicker.

[KittyF]

you may not be able to "SEE" it flicker but your body reacts to it. our bodies are much more sensitive to environment than previously thought.

consider that ANY light during the night, except red light, causes a drop in melatonin production resulting in a loss of sleep quality. Who knew? but it was happening and they're now reporting it. most people respond negatively to High power electric lines, but you can't quantify it. they make me feel jittery and anxious.

Same with CFLs. they bother me. the light is wrong, hurts my eyes and makes me tired at least two hours sooner every night than regular light bulbs.

[itsthatsguy]

i believe that those could be caused by EMI but the light cycling at 60Herts can affect brain patterns(NASA uses blinking lights to simulate night and day in space)

[Tool Using Animal]

citation needed