Dimmers can give a feeling to a room more comfortable and save money at the same time. But with the increasing popularity of compact fluorescent lamps or compact fluorescent lamps, many people are wondering what options are to use a dimmer with these lamps - or save more energy if you use a regular CFL or incandescent or halogen lamps with a dimmer switch.
We should begin to clear up some misconceptions people have about the relative efficiency of incandescent lamps,Halogen and fluorescent.
Many homeowners put in halogen lights, since 1980 on the mistaken assumption that they are more efficient than incandescent lamps. In fact, their efficiency is more or less exactly the same as that of incandescent lamps. So do not fool himself that it will cost you your halogen lamps.
CFL, on the other hand, are very efficient - it takes about a quarter as much electricity to run a compact fluorescent lampturn on an incandescent lamp or halogen lamp gives the same brightness. How often do you have about eight times last as long as incandescent bulbs.
So, if you use a dimmer, primarily to save energy, you can increase your savings by merely changing light bulbs or halogen lamps to energy saving light bulbs and keep the dimmer at full power, or go back to a standard on-off. You'll find yourself with more light with less energy.
If you want to give your room a more relaxed feel allTime is a solution, bring in lamps with lower light output. Whether you're down, for example, a 100-watt bulb for a 60-watt bulb, or down by a 100 watt light bulb on a 18-watt CFL, you will have less light and consume less energy. Of course, the solution CFL will save more energy in the long run.
But chances are that you want both ways: to obscure the low operating costs and longer life of CFL, with the capacity, if fullyThe light is too bright.
May have heard that do not have a regular compact fluorescent lamps on a dimmer adjust. In fact, it is possible, but I can not recommend it because it greatly reduces the remaining life of the bulb. Not reduce the risk of explosion or fire, adding the installation of a regular CFL on a standard dimmer - you will only shorten the life of the bulb. And since the higher costs for energy-saving bulbs is in part due to the fact that they are balanced by a factor of bulbs to survive8-1, putting a dimmer on a regular CFL standards destroyed, the cost advantage.
If you want to turn off the compact fluorescent lighting, you have two options: to buy a dimmer, is the lighting, or buy the so-called dimmable energy saving light bulbs that are compatible with standard dimmers.
Both decisions will result in energy savings benefits of CFLs, along with the ability to dim the lights. But for now, it would be dimmable energy saving lamps seems to bethe best option, as they are compatible with dimmer fluorescence are very expensive, while the difference in price between standard and dimmable compact fluorescent lamps is just pennies.
Consider the total cost for both options, for a lamp with three 60-watt bulbs. Allow us to give you already have a regular and regular dimmer bulbs. To upgrade to compact fluorescent bulbs, are the options:
1 Put in three 13-watt energy saving bulbs regularly $ 3Piece, and a $ 49 compact fluorescent dimmers. Total cost: $ 58.
2 Going for three 13-watt dimmable energy saving bulbs for $ 3.50 per item, and use the existing dimmer. Total cost: $ 10.50!
As you can tell, an actual dimmer is a much more affordable. Since both solutions have the same amount of energy in terms of payback period on the second solution with dimmable energy saving lamps is certainly much shorter.
Even if you need to get a dimmer, because you have notone, is still better to buy a standard switch and dimmable energy saving lamps. You can buy a standard dimmer for under $ 10. Even a fashion, a cost is $ 25 cheaper than a fluorescent dimmers for $ 49. And with the gap in cost between the standard and compact fluorescent dimming is so tight, just like a fluorescent dimmers can be economically competitive if the price drops significantly on it, probably in the next few years.
If your only destination for use with a dimmerCFL to save energy, and you do not already have a dimmer standards, I would suggest using the standard energy saving bulbs to stick for now and leave the dimmer, and use the money to save the dimmer compact fluorescent lights to purchase more other rooms of the house. Dimmer big savings for halogen lamps or incandescent lights added, as well as the lamps so expensive. For example, my game room six 50-watt halogen lamps with a dimmer. Using the dimmer in some50% mode, we use 150 watts instead of the full 300 watts. Because one hour a day, which would save 150 x 365 watts, or 55 kilowatt hours per year.
But if we, the 13-watt halogen bulbs compact fluorescent adjustable switch, would the consumption of 81 kilowatt hours per year reduction in its full strength. Turning down to half, we would only reduce our consumption by a further 13 kilowatt hours per year - which is about $ 1.30 worth of energy. Not really enough to make it really usefulGiven this alternative.
Response of consumers to dimmable CFLs are mixed. There were certainly some early quality problems with these lamps - early burn-out, blinking, and annoying hum. These problems have been worked extensively in the recent dimmable compact fluorescent lamps. But if it does not dim a strong motivation for you from your compact fluorescent bulbs, I'd recommend sticking to traditional compact fluorescent bulbs for a year or so until the market offers a widerRange of options for dimmable fluorescent lights. You never know - at this time, fluorescent dimmers price may fall.
