Florescent Lights

[James S.]

I'm having difficulty finding the dimmable CFLs.  Could someone tell me the brand name of the dimmable CFLs and perhaps the stores that are most likely to carry them?

[Brian H]

I got a few GE's from my electric companies energy savings web site. They now also have Greenlights and I have seen brochures from MaxiLight on their models.
Will see if I can find part numbers and post if found.

[Dan Lawrence]

Dimmable CFLs are very hard to find in the Baltimore Metro area.  None of the Home Depots carry them, and BGE, our local electric company (formerly Baltimore Gas & Electric Company) website for partners shows Home Depot.   You can get them on the web, but they are pricey and shipping costs are added.

I guess we will wait.

[Duck69]

Popular Mechanics has a very good article about CFL bulbs.
It's a must read !

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4215199.html

[HA Dave]

I just finished putting up the Christmas lights!

All our icicle lights are LED... saves a huge amount of power. And we set out fewer "things" this year too (no blow-ups). But I wanted a little more BANG too!

There are plenty of the colored flood lights in the stores.... which can add a lot of festive light... but at 85 watts each. Although I searched I could NOT find colored CFL floods (yet). What I did find was spray-on, KRYLON (brand) Crystal Color, transparent finish. I paid 3 bucks for a can of green at Walmart and sprayed a 19 watt CFL floodlight. Lots of bang for the watts.

[steven r]

...All our icicle lights are LED... saves a huge amount of power....

Yea for LEDs!

They really do save money and they never burn out. A typical LED can burn non-stop for over 10 years. They also only use a fraction of the electricity that older Christmas lights did. The LEDs lights I use have a comparison chart on the back of the box. It compared the cost to run 600 C-7 lights, 600 mini lights, and 600 LED lights 6 hours for 30 days.

• C-7            $31.30
• mini lights    $6.00
• LEDs               45¢

I was really pleased to hear that this year the Rockefeller Center tree is being lit with 30,000 LED lights. Also a solar panel is offsetting some of the power cost.