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Okay, I'm not the perfect exemplar of energy consciousness. I'm the one in the house most likely to forget a light on. I'm sorry, but it happens. Lights aren't really on the top of my brain, and I'm thinking deep thoughts, you know? (Like I wonder where I put the fig newtons, for example.)
So in a nominal attempt to counteract my poor tendencies I try to make some green choices here and there. One of them was in buying a smaller car for my daily commute. After the Rodeo burst into flames, I replaced it with a Hyundai Elantra. I'd been tempted to go with a Hybrid electric, but they were just too new at the time. If I had it to do over again today, I'd probably make my daily commuter something like the Honda Insight. Though, that's probably not realistic since it doesn't have a back seat to speak of, and it's hard to transport a family of three in such a car. Though the number of times we've taken the Hyundai with all of us after I got the car seat installed in the wife's vehicle is negligable. (I guess I should also mention here, that despite taking the good step of replacing a large gas guzzling offroad truck with an "economy" car, that has been counteracted by replacing my wife's more economic mazda with a mid sized SUV. It's not exactly a wash, because she puts far less miles per year than I do on a car.)
Back to lights.
I try to replace as many lightbulbs as possible in the house with Compact Fluorescents. CFs use a lot less energy, and they tend to last longer. I recently replaced the 40 watt bulbs over the bathroom sink with the equivalent, which I think are 7 watts? That's a nice tidy savings right there, of about 66 watts between the two bulbs, and for some reason these seem to be even brighter than the old bulbs. Though they were both dead, so maybe I'm just misremembering. Anyway, the big issue with CFs, is dimmers. The typical CF bulb can't be used in a circuit with a dimmer. (I've done it accidentally, and the bulbs blow almost immediately, so this is definitely true.) However, there are new bulbs on the market that can be dimmed. They are meant to replace those tiny flame shape 15w bulbs, like for a chandelier. When one of the bulbs in the chandelier in the dining room went, I replaced it with one of these, and tested it. They do work with the dimmer. Great! So I bought some more, and a second bulb went, and I replaced that too. Then when the third bulb went, I figured what the heck, and replaced them all. Bleh. The room became very dim. We even started to see a little bit of flicker. I don't know if its just unnoticeable with a mixed environment of CFs and incadescents, or if a single system just couldn't handle it all in one shot. What I know is that I couldn't leave it. It would be like eating meals in the dark. So I switched it back so that they alternated: half and half. It's a compromise, I know, but until CFs can handle it, I'm just going to leave it this way. I've got a few other lamps I can replace with the extra CFs, so they won't be a waste/loss. But I'll continue my quest for lighting that saves me money.
Next on the plate is figuring out how I can replace the covers of the "highhats" in my kitchen so I can fit the CF bulbs I bought for there. That's four bulbs running 65w that I should be able to get down to the effect of one. I think to make it work, I'll need to take a hack saw to the insert to make a hole large enough for the base to fit right. I'm just nervous making a change without having a part to fall back on.
So in a nominal attempt to counteract my poor tendencies I try to make some green choices here and there. One of them was in buying a smaller car for my daily commute. After the Rodeo burst into flames, I replaced it with a Hyundai Elantra. I'd been tempted to go with a Hybrid electric, but they were just too new at the time. If I had it to do over again today, I'd probably make my daily commuter something like the Honda Insight. Though, that's probably not realistic since it doesn't have a back seat to speak of, and it's hard to transport a family of three in such a car. Though the number of times we've taken the Hyundai with all of us after I got the car seat installed in the wife's vehicle is negligable. (I guess I should also mention here, that despite taking the good step of replacing a large gas guzzling offroad truck with an "economy" car, that has been counteracted by replacing my wife's more economic mazda with a mid sized SUV. It's not exactly a wash, because she puts far less miles per year than I do on a car.)
Back to lights.
I try to replace as many lightbulbs as possible in the house with Compact Fluorescents. CFs use a lot less energy, and they tend to last longer. I recently replaced the 40 watt bulbs over the bathroom sink with the equivalent, which I think are 7 watts? That's a nice tidy savings right there, of about 66 watts between the two bulbs, and for some reason these seem to be even brighter than the old bulbs. Though they were both dead, so maybe I'm just misremembering. Anyway, the big issue with CFs, is dimmers. The typical CF bulb can't be used in a circuit with a dimmer. (I've done it accidentally, and the bulbs blow almost immediately, so this is definitely true.) However, there are new bulbs on the market that can be dimmed. They are meant to replace those tiny flame shape 15w bulbs, like for a chandelier. When one of the bulbs in the chandelier in the dining room went, I replaced it with one of these, and tested it. They do work with the dimmer. Great! So I bought some more, and a second bulb went, and I replaced that too. Then when the third bulb went, I figured what the heck, and replaced them all. Bleh. The room became very dim. We even started to see a little bit of flicker. I don't know if its just unnoticeable with a mixed environment of CFs and incadescents, or if a single system just couldn't handle it all in one shot. What I know is that I couldn't leave it. It would be like eating meals in the dark. So I switched it back so that they alternated: half and half. It's a compromise, I know, but until CFs can handle it, I'm just going to leave it this way. I've got a few other lamps I can replace with the extra CFs, so they won't be a waste/loss. But I'll continue my quest for lighting that saves me money.
Next on the plate is figuring out how I can replace the covers of the "highhats" in my kitchen so I can fit the CF bulbs I bought for there. That's four bulbs running 65w that I should be able to get down to the effect of one. I think to make it work, I'll need to take a hack saw to the insert to make a hole large enough for the base to fit right. I'm just nervous making a change without having a part to fall back on.
