Recessed lighting points straight down. Because of this more bulbs are needed to evenly light an entire room than with a bare hanging bulb. LED bulbs are very efficient, last forever, and work great as a replacement for power hungry bulbs.
Yeah, but not one per sf of space... it should be like one per 4 sf.
You could always just unscrew bulbs that light up areas you don't need lit up too often as well.
Good thought, but already tried that and annoyed DW who screwed them back in.
This might not be nearly as costly as you first imagine.
You have 2 rooms that take 18-20 bulbs. Cheapest up-front option is 13watt CFLs for ~$1 each (total wattage 13*18 = 234 watts/hour).
If you leave all of them on for four hours per day (pretty substantial amount of use) that's just under 1kw. In most areas that's 8-15¢ (ave 12¢).
Your monthly electricity bill will be $3.60 for those 18 bulbs.
More efficient is to go with LEDs - $10 is a lot per bulb, i recently picked up some bulbs at HD for $3.99 each. The longevity of the bulbs makes them the economical long-term choice over CFLs. Out of pocket costs would be $72 with no replacement for a few decades. Electricity usage would be ~$1.75/month for those 18 bulbs.
I agree. I think your cost numbers are for the basic CFL bulbs whereas the recessed lights use flood bulbs that are a bit more expensive. Regardless I think the math is on the right track. I found some LED ones at Home Depot that were $18 for a 3-pack so $6 each, which is better. They are 10.5w And my electricity rate is $0.18/kW (I am jealous of MMM's $0.09 in CO)
as for "help" - I'd shop around for sales on LED bulbs and serially replace the bulbs whenever you find them on promo. And stop worrying about the power consumption - just shut off the lights whenever you aren't in the room.
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i wish...but with DW and three small kids the kitchen gets a lot of time....easily 5 hours per day between morning and night (maybe more in the winter darker months) - there is always someone in there it seems.
But that makes the math even better - I calculated savings of $233 ((65w-10.5w) x 13bulbs x 5hours x 365)/1000 x $0.18.......otherwise said as a 4 month payback period....not to shabby.