If I was to secretly replace all 36 of my parents current 60W normal lightbulbs with 34 60W fluorescent lightbulbs and 2 40W fluorescent lightbulbs (for basement), how much money would it cost to buy them and how money much would it save per month?

 

My mom thinks the swirl is ugly so I'd have to replace secretly. Who looks at a lightbulb and who cares... :mellow:

This is one of the stranger topics I've seen here on OT...

 

I dunno, but having to change lightbulbs secretly is rather bizzare :P

Bulbs

 

Well, according to this, if the bulbs are $.99, you would spend about $34 on the 60W bulbs. Not sure on the amount of money saved each month though.

If it will only cost $34, that's a good deal. Those bulbs seem to never run out; I've changed them once in about 17-18 months.

why would you want to swap them for florescent bulbs?

 

Fluorescent just has tht nasty yellow glare to it.

Surely you mean energy saving bulbs?

 

Edit: Judging by that link above I get them impression American's call energy saving bulbs fluorescent bulbs.

Try googling fluorescent bulbs. Look at images. 95% of them are the swirly, energy saving ones. Which, incidentally, are a lot brighter.

I assume that was directed at me.

While that maybe true I don't generally find a need to google light bulbs; nor doe it alter the fact that in the uk a fluorescent bulb refers to the old style fluorescent tube bulbs and not to energy saving bulbs.

Errr, yeah, energy efficient bulbs are what I'm talking about, obviously. :P As for the yellow tint yeah I agree, it's disgusting, grew up with that - I use 'pure white' in my apartment. And yeah my mom is wierd, she doesn't like swirly and she wouldn't like pure white either... :mellow: :mellow: :mellow:

 

There's no website or anything that calculates the difference in cost?

To calculate costs you would have to know how much your electric company charges you per watt (or kilowatt, megawatt, whichever it is), estimate how much time you have lightbulb turn on, and do the math.

Errr, yeah, energy efficient bulbs are what I'm talking about, obviously. :P As for the yellow tint yeah I agree, it's disgusting, grew up with that - I use 'pure white' in my apartment. And yeah my mom is wierd, she doesn't like swirly and she wouldn't like pure white either... :mellow: :mellow: :mellow:

 

There's no website or anything that calculates the difference in cost?

It depends on a couple of factors, like how much they are left on and what's the price for kWh with your provider. Then, if you really were changing 60W bulbs for 60W bulbs, you wouldn't be saving any money. Most probably they are "equivalent" to 60W, you'd need to know what their actual power is.

 

[Edit] Nick beat me to it.

You won't be saving any money if you replace a 60W by a 60W. Though, a fluorescent 13W is as strong as an Incandescent 60W, so this is where you would be saving money.

 

There are fluorescent bulbs that have an out layer made for them to look like the old ones.

Once you get all the information, a Calculator for you.

If she thinks they're ugly and you just change them without her consent she'll just replace them. Find out savings and talk with her about that, some mothers seem to love savings. Maybe get her to agree to replacing any light bulbs that break with an energy-efficient one.

or you can just use the u-shaped ones rather than the spirals.

You can also point out that if you look at the spiral while the light is on, you can't see it because of how bright it is.

why would you want to swap them for florescent bulbs?

 

Fluorescent just has tht nasty yellow glare to it.

Surely you mean energy saving bulbs?

 

Edit: Judging by that link above I get them impression American's call energy saving bulbs fluorescent bulbs.

 

florescent bulbs = energy saving bulbs, for all intents and purposes. Those curly energy saving bulbs you see are essentially just twisted up tube bulbs (which, incidentally, are quite energy efficient). The only technology which saves energy is LED lighting, which is quite rare and expensive at the moment.

 

 

Why you would want to get rid of incandescent bulbs is another story. The light color is softer, and if your mom doesn't mind the sightly higher bills I would let it go.