Monday, July 21, 2008
To Save the Planet, Get Rid of Compact Fluorescent light bulbs!
What? Everybody says CFL's are the greenest thing since Al Gore ran over Kermit with his Prius. But Compact fluorescents are NOT the greenest bulb out there, they just beat incandescent A-Lamps by a long way. Those long, 1" diameter T-8's with an electronic ballast are *twice* as efficient as a compact fluorescent. You can also get a smaller, 5/8" diameter T-5, which is also very efficient and fits nicely under a cabinet. Here is a picture of both in action, in a wall-mounted indirect configuration. Light the walls, then the room looks bright. Both of these light fixtures are very, very simple: just a strip of wood hiding a very basic, but high quality, strip light. These are NOT shop lights from the discount aisle at the hardware store, they have an electronic ballast and can match almost anything out there in efficien
cy. For about $18 a pop. Here is a link to the kind that I ordered. The undercabinet lights were also quite inexpensive, but good quality. Here is a detail of both kinds of light fixtures:
