Watt’s the deal?
Posted by aunt mommy on 15 Nov 2008 at 01:18 pm | Tagged as: 93DB70
As our light bulbs have burned out, I’ve replaced them with more energy-efficient lights, trying to reduce the energy we expend and keep our bills down in general. Now that we have and IKEA and other stores are starting to take back Compact Flourescent Bulbs, it’s easier than ever here in sublurbia to do that sort of thing - green up a bit where we can, following that first R - reduce (recycling is the last thing you should do!).
I’ve been pretty happy with CFL bulbs. In addition to being more widely available, they’ve gotten warmer in coloration, more like the incandescent bulbs they’re replacing. The first ones I bought were blue cool bulbs; harsh at night like a bad day at the office in Joe vs the Volcano. Most of what we’ve got still require a warm-up time, but we’re getting used to that.
But for some applications, CFL are not a good choice. Lamps near little fingers. Instant-on or (shh!) all-night on applications. LED bulbs are our choice there. A few minutes of searching the other day found me this incandescent-equivalency chart but I neglected to take it to the light bulb store with me earlier this week.
Yes, a store dedicated only to lighting, light bulbs, and accessories. You aren’t going to find LED lights at Target unless they’re built into a fixture (hanging lamp, plug-in night light).
When I got there, I was greeted by an employee who offered to help me find what I needed. Great! I thought; another reason to support local businesses: friendly and knowledgeable staff. I didn’t leave thinking that way.
I told him what I needed - a low-light LED bulb in white that would fit into a standard household socket (type B, in case you are wondering). He shook his head and said they only had toys. Toys - party bulbs that changed colors. I asked him if he was sure, and he pointed out the other option - a spotlight made of LEDs. When I asked him the incandescent equivalent, he said he had no idea how bright it was in watts.
So I thanked him, pulled out the party bulb and a few other special bulbs I can get elsewhere but wanted from there (a little pricier than the chains). As he’s ringing them up, I go back to the shelf. He does too have plain white bulbs! I pull them out and he adds them to the total while I put back the party lights. As those go back on the shelf, I find even more white bulbs - 25% cheaper than the first pair I’d pulled out. And they were marked with incandescent equivalency information.
This actually made me kind of miffed at the store. Sure, I only bought a few bulbs today, same as a few weeks ago, but these are questions similar to those I asked on my previous excursion (I was buying candelabra LEDs then). I don’t think it’s that hard to make up a quick reference card and put it on the LED rack. It would take them a few minutes, and it’s done. Even Mister Why-aren’t-you-buying-two-grand-worth-of-fancy-lamps could take a quick glance and have the answers to us wandering in. He seemed annoyed at my looking through the bulbs to find what I needed, even though it nearly doubled my total (and LED lights are not cheap - dang!).
Maybe he’s just counting the days down to the inevitable. I suppose with the way building and remodeling are slowing down, he might not be long for the lighting store anyway.
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