Robert A. Uhl

Anyone who follows energy prices knows that they’re not going down; in fact, natural gas prices have doubled over the last two years (and due to political opposition to nuclear and practical opposition to coal, almost every new power plant is powered by, you guessed it, natural gas).

Years ago environmentalists were trumpeting the advantages of fluorescent light bulbs which were bulky, didn’t fit every lamp, didn’t produce enough light and which were economically unsound (spending $20 to save $5 is stupid). Times have changed, though: whilst at Costco today I found compact fluorescents — the size as incandescent bulbs — for $1.75 apiece. The package advertised savings of $56 per bulb, over the lifetime of the bulb (advertised at nine years) at an electricity price of $3.51/therm (12¢/kilowatt-hour); my actual electricity price is $2.41/therm, so it works out to saving $38.35 over nine years; while this doesn’t account for the fact that the bulbs are almost certain not to last the rated nine years, it also doesn’t account for the fact that electricity prices are bound to rise as well.

That works out to a savings per year of $4.26; given that the bulbs cost $1.75 and assuming that I simply replace my existing incandescents, that means the bulbs pay for themselves in five months.

So I bought them — how good are they, really? Well, I will admit that they are somewhat dimmer than I would like: these are 15 watt bulbs (replacing 60 watt bulbs), and I rather think that 16–18 watts would have been better. They’re actually quite a bit easier on the eyes, though — and my bathroom seems brighter than before (possibly they reinforce one another better than incandescents do, if it’s possible for there to be a difference). Also, there is about a half-second delay for the lights to come on: unlike incandescents, they don’t come on immediately. I think all in all they’re worth every penny: so long as they last at least as long as a normal light bulb, they use ¼ the electricity.

I’m buying another package the next time I go to Costco.