Healthy Homes of Rochester

It is the holiday season and what better way to go green but to hang LED light bulbs instead of the incandescent light bulbs. Below is an example of a great product to have for the holiday decorating. The LED light bulbs save energy and money. They do not draw nearly the electricity that the old bulbs do therefore saving plenty on your electric costs. Light the holidays up at a fraction of the cost this year!

Happy Holidays from Healthy Homes of Rochester

Give a loved one a CFL 13 Watt light bulb as a gift. It will show you care. Not only are you going green, the loved one you give the CFL light bulb will be saving energy and therefore saving money this comming year! This is an affordable idea for a stocking stuffer.
A simple yet caring idea for that special someone in your life.

Happy Holidays from us at Healthy Homes of Rochester.

I thought I would provide you a great service by recommending products that I use and have tested over time, and, provide a handy link where you can purchase the items if you wish.
I have purchased the compact fluorescent light bulbs you see at the link below and have had good luck with them. The price seems to be very comparable to other stores and even less expensive than some. The bonus is you don’t have to leave your home to get the compact fluorescent light bulbs.

These light bulbs come 4 in a pack, are rated at giving off 40 watts of light while only using the equivalent of 12 watts of energy. Over the lifetime of the bulbs, your estimated saving is $148.00
Now that is what I call saving money. Simply replace the standard incandescent bulbs with the compact fluorescent light bulbs and that is all. Just see the link below if you are in search of new light bulbs.

There is another green, energy saving product by the Fixie Chick
Enjoy

For decades the choice came down to an incandescent bulb or a fluorescent. Even with the relatively recent introduction of CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights), incandescents almost always won. CFLs are much more expensive and still don’t give off the same spectrum of natural-looking light that ‘ordinary’ bulbs come much closer to.

Enter LEDs.

Light emitting diodes have been used for over 40 years, first making their commercial appearance in watches and small clocks. But for almost that same length of time, they gave off too little light and of limited color to be useful for home illumination. No one could read or cook by a dim red light.

But LED bulbs have come a long way in recent years. While still much more expensive than an incandescent bulb, they have overcome many of the disadvantages of fluorescents. They produce bright, natural-spectrum white light that can illuminate a medium-sized area with one bulb. Actually the bulbs are made of multiple LEDs in one enclosure.

And, not the least consideration, they last practically forever. A LED bulb can burn for over 50,000 hours. Some are rated at 60,000 hours. Even if in use for as much as 10 hours per day (4 hours/day is closer to average), that works out to almost 14 years of use.

Add up all the money spent on incandescents – which last from 750-1,000 hours – and the total savings is substantial. If a 75-watt bulb costs $1 and an LED bulb costs $50, most will opt for the incandescent. But if the LED lasts 50 times longer, you break even. That doesn’t even include the time spent picking up bulbs, changing them and so forth.

Apart from the initial outlay costs, the difference in electricity use is equally dramatic, but in the LED’s favor. Keep in mind that the standard label on an incandescent is how much power it consumes, not how much light it puts out. A 60-watt incandescent bulb puts out somewhat less than 900 lumens.

A LED bulb costing roughly $50 is available that is the equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent in terms of the light given off. Yet, it consumes only 2 watts of electricity. Multiply that electricity savings by 4 hours per day over 10 years and the cost savings will far outweigh the cost of the LED bulb. At 10 cents/kWh, the total savings over 10 years is about $350. So, the bulb will pay for itself in about 18 months.

At the same time, a LED bulb runs cooler so there’s no danger of burning as so often happens with incandescents. A 100-watt bulb placed in a socket designed for a 40-watt will burn the covering plastic shade in a matter of hours or less. Also, how many times have you singed your skin when touching an ordinary bulb? That doesn’t happen with LED bulbs.

The color spectrum of LED bulbs is also superior. While incandescents do a good job or providing a reasonable emulation of natural sunlight, LEDs are far better. Incandescents are somewhat yellow, LEDs are white and much closer to the color temperature of natural daylight. And, unlike fluorescent bulbs, LEDs contain no mercury, which is hazardous if the bulb breaks.

Still LEDs have some drawbacks, apart from the higher cost. They don’t currently put out as much light per bulb as a single incandescent so it may require more than one for particular lighting applications. They light a little less than CFL bulbs.

Since LEDs are more directional, they’ll do better in reading lamps, recessed ceiling lamps and other such applications than as general ambient light. But where a long-lasting and/or always-on bulb is needed they can be very cost-effective.

You can get a couple of popular types below if you would like to try the LED bulbs out.

So many people are used to thinking about wattage, they forget that word doesn’t measure brightness, but power consumption. They think of needing a brighter bulb, so they seek one that’s a higher number of watts. But that relationship only holds for incandescent bulbs (and, to a degree, halogens). When, as is more and more often the case today, fluorescents or LEDs enter the picture, the situation can become confusing.

A watt is a measure of power, the voltage (in volts) multiplied by the current (in amps). But because of the fact that a higher power consumption by an incandescent bulb causes the filament to become hotter, it glows brighter. That produces a brighter light.

To get a more useful comparison between incandescents and CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights) or LEDs, consider instead the amount of lumens the bulb is rated for. A lumen is the amount of light intensity falling on one square foot of area measured one foot away. But don’t worry, you don’t have to get out a light meter and a ruler. That work has already been done for you by the manufacturer.

For example, a 100-watt incandescent bulb will produce about 1,600-1,750 lumens. They vary for many reasons, such as the type of coating on the inside of the bulb, the alloy used for the filament and other factors. By comparison, a CFL may consume only 20 watts, yet produce about the same amount of illumination.

Similarly, a LED bulb which is actually composed of many LEDs, or light emitting diodes, within one enclosure, that produces an equivalent quantity of light may well consume only a few watts of electrical power.

From these numbers it’s easy to see why CFLs and LEDs are becoming more popular. They do cost more up front. But they consume so much less power that, as the bulb prices go down and the cost of electricity rises, they become more attractive. Over 10 years, at 10 cents per kWhr, the savings is approximately $350 for a single LED over the power many incandescents would need.

But the comparisons don’t stop with the amount of electricity consumed and the cost. There are differences among the three in something called color temperature that can form a big part of the choice to go with one or the other.

Human eyes evolved to see in natural daylight and, to an extent, moonlight which is reflected sunlight. The surface temperature of the sun is about 6,000K. (K stands for Kelvin; K = 273 + C, where C is Celsius). Because of the relationship between the temperature of the sun’s gases and light wavelengths along with the effects of the Earth’s atmosphere, the sun produces light that is perceived as approximately white. That relationship between temperature and color gave rise to the term ‘color temperature’.

Incandescents range from a yellowish to a bluish-white, but all do a fairly good job of approximating what our eyes see as ‘natural’, even at the much lower color temperature of approximately 2,700K. Old style fluorescents, because they contain mercury vapor, give off a more greenish cast. But newer CFLs manage to produce a hue much closer to natural white light. LEDs are closer than either.

So, when comparing bulbs look also for the color temperature on the packaging. That hue plays a part in the ease of reading and other tasks that home lighting is designed for. It will affect eye fatigue, and hence the possibility of headaches. It influences the general efficiency with which you can perform those tasks.

Finally, look at the bulb life ratings.

An ordinary incandescent will last from 750-1,000 hours. At the higher number, used 4 hours/day it will last about two-thirds of a year. A good CFL may last between 6,000-15,000 hours, or about 10 years if used the same amount of time. The higher cost is beginning to look like a good deal. An average LED bulb is rated at 50,000-60,000 hours. At 4 hours per day that’s over 40 years of use.

Which is best depends on your budget, your cost of electricity and how often you want or need to buy bulbs. But, as the price of CFLs and LEDs continues to come down, they look better and better, especially for those long-term applications.