Local s.market has four regular edison screw 115 volt fluorescent 'lamps' for $14.90 (Canadian) plus sales tax. That's roughly $4.30 per lamp. They are supposed to last 10,000 hours or something and use less electricity to produce same light as a more energy consuming incandescent bulb. They look to be about the same dimensions as the el-cheapo 40 and
60 watters have been buying for around 30 cents (tax included) that are supposed to last 1000 hours. The difference in first cost being approx. $4. I guess that at $0.08 per k.watt hour for a 'difference/saving' in electric consumption of say 36 watts per hour? Then; 0.036 k.watts/hr X 0.08 = 0.3 cents/hr saving. So at say 8-10 hours per night X 0.3 = 3 cents per night saving? Or the difference in price of approx. $4 must be worth 400/0.3 = 1,333 hours additional life, compared to the el cheapos, to be worthwhile? Not sure if these numbers are right but it's 2.00 AM so I'll leave it there! For comment/correction. But any feedback about suitability and reliability of these in closed outside light fixtures for continuous all night use? Cheers. PS. Have read some concerns about shortened life of these, now becoming easily available, fluorescent alternatives, on another news group; but whether that was in situations where the fluorescent lamps were switched on/off too frequently not sure. Also it has been mentioned that some of these 'energy saving' lamps require considerably more energy and materials to manufacture and also can contain environmentally unfriendly materials such as mercury?- posted
20 years ago