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Saturday, April 28, 2007

Dimmable Fluorescent Bulbs

To help reduce energy consumption, we decided to give dimable flourescent bulbs a try in the kitchen.

Home Depot has them for $13 each, which is about $10 more than normal flood lights, but they consume a lot less power and supposedly last 8 years or more. These give the same amount of light as 65W incandecents, but only use 15W. With 10 recessed lights in the kitchen, we are looking at saving 300W (using dimmer) to 500W (full power).


How they compare: the light is whiter, even when dimmed. The dimming works fairly well. No buzzing, but they do take a second to come on. All in all, they are the right way to go. That being said, we are keeping 40W incandecents in the island pentants for now, to keep the light on the counter surface a bit warmer.

I am hoping that in the next few years, LED technology gets mature enough to provide an even better and greener alternative...

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