April's Green Challenge: Fixture foibles

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April's Green Challenge: Fixture foibles

by Kelly Leahy (Subscribe to Kelly Leahy's posts)
Apr 9th 2008 @ 5:47PM

Filed under: Home, Green challenge

Around the first of the month I introduced the Green Challenge, encouraging everyone to change out one single conventional bulb for a compact fluorescent. I've been swapping out bulbs all over the house and I've run into some troubles, the least of which being that I've broken two so far.

There are some lighting fixtures that I have been resistant to converting, specifically, my ceiling fans. Most of my ceiling fans require more than one bulb and when I put new CFLs in, they have a tendency to flicker for several minutes. I am in the process of trying different bulbs but it's a side effect that I can't live with.

I'm also have trouble with some of the bulb sizes. I bought some candelabra bulbs that were too long to fit in one of my ceiling fans and I had to swap them out for a more expensive variety.

Additionally, for the fans and fixtures with exposed bulbs, I prefer the look of the incandescents so I have to pay quite a bit more for covered CFLs.

With my pickiness and butterfingers, this project is getting rather costly! Fortunately I only challenged you to change ONE bulb. Has anyone done it yet?

Next week: CFLs that don't suck!

Comments [8]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-09-2008 @ 10:16PM

Graeme said...

I have changed 7 bulbs so far and I'm at 0 broken bulbs, I'm sure my time will come soon though.

I bought some Phillips Marathon energy efficient lights and they work great for me. They have a slight yellow tint so they create light that looks like a normal incandescent light. They don't have any sort of flicker that you're referring to, but they do take about a minute to get to full brightness, although this isn't usually noticeable.

4-09-2008 @ 10:17PM

kelly.leahy said...

Hooray! I'll try Phillips next. Thanks!

4-10-2008 @ 12:52AM

jenna said...

Buy LED lightbulbs. a little more expensive, but they last longer and you can use the dimmer option on your lamps, plus they're a purer light.

4-13-2008 @ 10:00AM

Ranjith Kumar said...

I realised and changed these bulbs. Thanks to greendaily users for spreading the awareness. In India this has gained popularity and every one started to see the benefits of using CFLs. The government has initiatives to distribute CFLs to villagers who can't afford them. Signs are looking good.

An useful link which I would like to share:
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/banthebulb/

4-10-2008 @ 9:22AM

Matt said...

I had the same problem with a fan in my bedrooms. The fan would run and help with the cooling a bit but the bulb would flick on a little every revolution. I think this is called induction but in any case, I wound up putting two CF bulbs in and one incandescent bulb and that did the trick. 2 out of 3 ain't bad as Meatloaf would say. I think the incandescent is so ineffecienct that it absorbs the electricity that the CF bulbs were using.
I have not tried the LED bulbs but would like to. I am just afraid that I'll spend the money and they'll do the same thing.

I am sure a electrical engineer would be able to explain this in detail, are there any around?

4-10-2008 @ 9:28AM

kelly.leahy said...

Jenna - I'll keep an eye out for some LED's this weekend. Can I find them at a typical home improvement store or do I need to order them? Thanks for the advice!

Matt - I had some success as well with combining the lights but the light quality was so different between the two bulbs that it drove me nuts to look at the fan. I'm a bit obsessive.

4-10-2008 @ 9:54AM

ThreePts said...

My whole house is converted except for my bathroom lighting. Minus the split second it takes extra to turn on, we are happy with them.

4-10-2008 @ 12:38PM

Patrick said...

I'm not sure if the Sylvania e-logic bulbs are in a lot of store at this point, but I got some from a trade show and they a energy-efficient and work on dimmers. My house is full of lights that flicker with the typical energy bulbs, but the e-logic bulbs have been a gem!

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