Jean Eng Blog

I try to do what I can to be more eco-friendly so imagine my surprised when I was at home depot yesterday looking for storage containers and walked by the aisle for light bulbs to discover the energy saving light bulbs, aka compact fluorescent light (cfl) were on some kind introductory/promotional price!

We have a few around the house already but I’ve yet to change out most of the incandescent bulbs with the cfls. It’s the N:Vision brand that is on promo with some multipacks being up to $3.00 off! I got a 4pk of 14w (60w equivalent) bright white ones for $5.97, regular price is $8.97! :good:

What I didn’t know being it’s been awhile since I bought these is that not only do they offer different wattages but they also offer different light output within each wattage class. The light output or lumens are different depending on whether you’re looking for a soft white, a bright white, or a day light amount of output. I don’t know if this is something new but I am learning!

So after many minutes looking around and trying to understand it all, I decided to get a 4pk of the 14w (60w equivalent) in bright white, on special for $5.97, a 4pk of the 14w in day light at regular price of $8.97, and a 2pk of 23w (100w equivalent) in bright white, also on special for $5.97, normally $8.97.

So here are my findings so far after installing all of them in various locations throughout the house.

First impressions:

Unlike some of the brands we have previously used that had a one second delay in turning on after you have flipped the switch, these ones come on instantly.

The brightness level upon first turn on is not at full capacity. At first, I put in a 14w in an overhead fixture in the basement and thought, awww..these suck, they’re so dim. I left the room to grab the 23w which is the 100w equivalent if you’ve been following along. By the time I cut open the package, took out the bulb and walked back to the basement, I was surprised that the room was much brighter than when I first turned on the bulb. That’s when I made the connection that it takes a little bit of time, less than a minute for them to get to full brightness capacity.

The cfl bulbs we used prior to today were always in fixtures that would accommodate more than one bulb so we had paired them up with an incandescent because I didn’t like the way the cfl made the room look. Sort of that hospital fluorescent tinge which doesn’t make a person look all that attractive or healthy looking.

What is still a bit confusing to me though is that on the package it shows a spectrum of light output from left to right: soft white (left) bright white (middle) and day light (right). Logically speaking, one would deduce that soft white would be dimmer than bright white and day light would appear brightest or cleanest looking. I’m not sure what the lumens are on the soft whites because I didn’t buy a pack of those but on the same 14w bulbs, the bright white showed 800 lumens while the day light ones only showed 630 lumens. I may have to read up on that but it seems to me that the higher number of lumens doesn’t correlate to the brightness spectrum….unless the chart on the package is not really linear in output as the picture seem to suggest.

Anyhow, in another ceiling fixture that accommodated three bulbs, I decided to mix and match the bulbs. I replaced all three 40w incandescent bulbs with 1 of the older 23w we had previously, 1 of the 14w bright white, and 1 of the 14w day light bulbs. When I put the frosted glass cover back on, it was interesting seeing the room and the fixture.

Going from 120w before to 51w in cfl and in different light output, I noticed that the room seemed brighter…but in a different way. Our older 23w had a rather warmer tone to it which sort of resembles the incandescent soft white bulbs. The bright white also had a warm tone but not as warm as incandescent light. The day light however was white, there was no hint of warmth to it but it was a pure and clean looking white….and not quite like the icky fluorescent I mentioned earlier. Looking at the frosted light fixture, I still had to squint my eyes at the brightness but I was able to see how each of the bulbs glowed different hues of warmth or lack thereof.

My next test was the bathroom. I like it bright so I can see what parts I’m washing (haha). I decided to replace the two 100w incandescent bulbs with 2 of the 14w day light cfl. The lighting fixture can accommodate up to 4 bulbs but I never use all 4 slots as it gets plenty bright with 2 100w bulbs. Downsizing to 2 60w equivalent cfls, I was concerned that it wouldn’t be bright enough. Flipped the switch and it just looks weird in there. I waited a bit until the bulbs got to full capacity and then noticed that it was plenty bright! Using both day light bulbs was too much for me to take. From another room peering towards the light emitting from the bathroom, it really does give a “day light” effect. It’s a strange thing since there are no windows in that bathroom and I know it’s night time.

I decided to use 1 day light and 1 bright white for the bathroom. Even with that, the lighting needed a little kick to it so I also added back in one of the 40w incandescent bulbs I removed from the other room. This combination gave it the warmth this room needed for those times one has to get naked in front of the mirror. This 68w combo is plenty bright, even a bit brighter than 200w of incandescent lighting, in my opinion.

Now I am curious whether the cfl “soft white” bulbs are even warmer tone than the others! If it works out that way, I’ll have to get some of them and put one in the bathroom and take out the incandescent altogether….but then again, I kind of like having one bulb as incandescent because it is at full capacity right away so someone dashing in just to wash their hands or check their hair in the mirror isn’t going to have to wait before they can really see/do what they need. Tomorrow I’m heading back to home depot to get more light bulbs! I don’t know how long this introductory/promotional deal will last but $3.00 off on a multipack is good deal. I was reading reviews on cfl and some people have reported to saving 1/3 off their electric bill just by replacing their light bulbs to cfl! WOW, do we really waste that much electricity just by flipping on a light switch?

All in all, I’m pleased initially with these light bulbs. Time will tell just how long they will last. We’ve had 2 bulbs die on us already within a year even though they claim to last for a lot longer. I’m not sure what brands they were though. Hopefully these ones will hold up longer. If you’d like to give these a try, get them now at your local home depot while it’s still on promotional price! :clapping: