There was probably something wrong with the six light bulbs in our kitchen. They would flicker and go out at least once a month so we were always putting in maintenance requests. The maintenance crew would then come around and change the bulbs. We weren’t allowed to do it, in case we got hurt.
Anyway, they finally decided to put in a permanent solution. Yesterday, our friendly maintenance man came to replace the six tungsten bulbs with halogens. (While he was installing the lights, I did ask if they had considered using the more energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs but apparently CFLs don’t fit.)
So now we have a bright new kitchen in which we can cook late into the night and read our newspapers and novels.
Unfortunately, I can’t stand or sit directly beneath a light for long. It gets uncomfortably warm. Maybe this will be an advantage in winter?
It would be interesting to track our house’s electricity bill. I’m betting they will be much higher now.
Hmmm.. I thought that they had started making CFLs to fit halogen fittings… I guess not where he shops though..
I think you’re right, Dan. They’ve made all-singing all-dancing halogens now that look exactly like tungsten bulbs (same shape, same colour). He was replacing tungstens so I think CFLs could have fit.
I hope that having brought it up with him, even mildly, that the seed of the idea has been planted in his head.
I was thinking that it could probably be easy to make the business case to my college for switching to CFLs. I could get the electricity bill, take 13% of it to represent lighting (typically), then say that they could save three-quarters that amount in energy use, plus the fact that CFLs last 6-11 times longer, so they would save the bulb replacement costs (as well as paying for labour, with these friendly maintenance people running to our house every month to change bulbs).
I’ll bet it adds up to thousands of pounds a year.