What do you pay for electricity? Impact on appliance decisions...

[bhelms]

I'm not sold on "twisty bulbs" at all! They don't give the equivalent light output that they state and they often don't last long enough to reach their payback. The cost of replacing them under warranty is just one more variable to add into the equation. They are certainly attractive when you "do the math", but in practice (at least IMHO) they don't "hold up", figuratively or literally.

I use a number of CFLs in several "non-critical" applications around my house, but I definitely prefer the good old incandescents for most other uses, especially where I need good lighting for visual acuity like at my work bench or my favorite reading chair. In those applications with only intermittent use it is really hard to justify the CFL equivalent on the energy payback basis.

And altho' CFLs are more "green" from the reduced energy consumption standpoint, they do contain phosphors and especially mercury that require special disposal considerations... (If your power comes from coal, the Hg emitted from the coal used to light the CFL over its life could exceed what's in the lamp.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent

 

[navychop]

In my experience, the Philips brand of CFLs are unreliable. Other brands have worked well and last many years. Yes, you need to be careful that you get one "large" enough in wattage to produce enough light. But not having to replace bulbs is wonderful! I only wish they worked with dimmers, and were a bit smaller.

 

[chadzx11]

WOW!!! I just checked both of my electric bills and I pay WAY more than that.

TXU 15.20 cents/kWh
Garland Power & Light 11.68 cents/kWk

Deregulation did absolutely NOTHING to lower electric rates in Texas.

You guys can chose? We have a sh!tty coop here that I hate. I hate the gas co, too, so when I built my house I paid a $600 premium to "upgrade" to all electric appliances. That didn't stop those Atmos/Mississippi Valley gas douchebags from digging up my yard to hook up the people across the street. If I did the math right, I am running 8.9 cents/kwh. When we were house hunting we did a lot of enquiring to people about their gas bills. We were shocked (one house that my wife loved had NO insulation, and the seller told us the gas ran $300/mo in the winter.)

So, our result is that our electric bill is marginally more than my wife's coworkers. You know, just a shade. $30 here or there, but we don't have any gas bills. The real reason I wanted all electric is so that I can install some solar panels and go off the grid.

If I had a choice, for now I'd choose entergy--even though their electricity costs more. The diference is reliability. Coahoma homeboys electric coop dropped service once a day AT LEAST for the first year. They have improved, but as a rule, I still come home once a week to a blinking alarm clock. We have taken to turning everything off when we are not here, but the bastards still blew up my PS2. Watching a DVD, electricity goes off, and when it comes back, MR PS2 no worky. Of course they didn't pay for it. They blamed their catch all culprit: lighting. It wasn't even storming that day.

Deregulation is a myth in north mississippi. Don't feel bad for me. It could be worse. I could have MLGW.

 

[ticket]

In my experience, the Philips brand of CFLs are unreliable. Other brands have worked well and last many years. Yes, you need to be careful that you get one "large" enough in wattage to produce enough light. But not having to replace bulbs is wonderful! I only wish they worked with dimmers, and were a bit smaller.

Philips, have recently introduced "dimmable" CFL bulbs to the market,

 

[navychop]

Another company has been selling them for a while, too. Depends upon the dimmer, and some recommend NEVER using CFLs of any sort with any dimmer. Plus, a previous round of dimable CFLs was discontinued.

 

[StevenD]

WOW!!! I just checked both of my electric bills and I pay WAY more than that.

TXU 15.20 cents/kWh
Garland Power & Light 11.68 cents/kWk

Deregulation did absolutely NOTHING to lower electric rates in Texas.

You guys can chose? We have a sh!tty coop here that I hate.

Yes and no. I currently own two houses.

One house (the one that I'm trying to sell) is on TXU. Its in a "deregulated area", so, yes, for that house, I can choose my electric provider (basically just a billing change). So, in the area where there is competition, the rates are rather high. Kinda strange if you ask me.

My new house is in Garland. The City of Garland owns their own municipal electric company (Garland Power and Light). When deregulation came to Texas several years ago, municipalities had the option to deregulate or not. Garland chose not to deregulate and their rates have always been significantly less than TXU.

 

[Neutron]

Princeton is weird. If you're south of US 380 like me, we're in TXU territory. People to the north of 380 are Texas-New Mexico Power and Light. That's funny, considering New Mexico is a good 500-600 miles from here.


We're deregulated though. I think we're about to switch. My wife found one that has a 12-month lock on 12 cents per kWh.

 

[Foxbat]

I'm waiting for 120VAC LED "light bulbs" to come down in price. Those promise to be longer-lived than even the CFL and more energy-efficient. Plus, they "should" be dimmable as well, with no color shift.

 

[navychop]

Yes, my dream too. They finally are getting energy efficient. My wife wanted to put in LED under counter lighting when we redo the kitchen. WAY too expensive. Something like $250 per fixture, IIRC.

 

[bhelms]

We are certainly getting there! I vividly remember one of the few Star Trek episodes I ever watched (I think it was ST!) in which an alien reached up to touch a light source and pulled-back as the bulb burned him, at which point he retorted something like "What a waste - all that energy going to heat instead of its intended purpose!" That has had me thinking about the alternatives for a long time! I think the ultimate would be storage-backed solar collectors powering solid-state light sources with no expenditure of land-based resources for the light provided...!