Lightbulb Comparisons

Fluorescents are better than incandescent, but LED are even better, right? Right. I mean, even though LED lights are expensive, they last practically forever. That’s good, right?

I told Pierre that. He asked for the prices, the life of each type of bulb, and the equivalent wattage of each.

So here is our comparison:
60 watt incadescent light for $2 each, with a lifespan of 1000 hours
14 watt fluorescent light for $4 each, with a lifespan of 8000 hours
6 watt LED light for $50 each, with a lifespan of 100,000 hours

1000 hours is 41 days with the light on 24/7, or 334 days with the light on for 3 hours a day. We figured it at 11 cents per kilowatt hour.

After 1000 hours:
- you have to replace the incandescent light bulb, which has cost you $6.60 in electricity
- the cost of the fluorescent light bulb plus the amount of electricity used to run it, has still been less than the cost of the incandescent
- the LED has cost practically nothing in electricity, just 66 cents, but oh, my goodness, it cost $50 to buy!

After 7000 hours:
- you’ve had to buy 7 incandescent lights, plus they have cost you $46.20 in electricity
- the fluorescent has cost you $10.78 in electricity; if we factor in the cost of all of the incandescent bulbs ($10) plus their electrical cost ($46.20), plus the cost of the fluorescent bulb($4) and its electricity, you have a savings of $45.42
-the LED has only cost you $4.62 in electricity; if we factor in the cost of all of the incandescent bulbs ($10) plus their electrical cost ($46.20), plus the cost of the LED bulb($50) and its electricity ($4.62), you finally begun to save money – $5.58

After 33,000 hours (about 22 years!!!):
- you’ve had to buy 33 incandescent lights at $2 each ($66), plus they’ve cost $217 in electricity
- the fluorescent has cost $50.82 in electricity, and have had to be replaced 5 times; factoring in the same costs as before, you have a total savings of $212.98
- you still haven’t had the replace the LED, and it has cost a total of $21.78 in electricity. At this point, you have finally reached equivalent savings to the fluorescent light bulbs.

Now, of course, anyone looking at this may be tempted to say that even the $217 for incandescent is a small amount, especially over 22 years. However, think for a little about just how many lights are on in your house. Ya thinking? Yea ….. To get a better average, take these figures and multiply them by half of the lightbulbs in your house, and you’ll probably get a closer estimate of how much they’re costing you.

So are fluorescent better than incandescent? Most definitely. Within a year, they pay for themselves. The price is going down all the time, and the technology is constantly improving. They are no longer the flickery, headache-inducing monstrosities that I remember from my teen years. Of course, they’re not perfect for all locations. If you like to apply makeup in front of your bathroom mirror, you might prefer an incandescent there. Personally, I’ve never noticed the greenish tint that some people speak about. Maybe I’m just naturally a little off-color. Again, if the light is going to be turned on and off very quickly, you’re still best with the incandescent.

However, I can’t really see any use, at their current prices, for LED lights in the household. They’d probably make a great gift for young newlyweds – give them the gift of never, ever having to change lightbulbs. Ever.

Microfiber, vinegar, and mice

The news for today is rather mixed. First, we appear to have mice. The pest man is supposed to be here in about an hour. Two nights ago, we were sitting in the livingroom when this little brown creature runs out into the middle of the room, looks at us, and runs back behind my dining room hutch. Oh, my. Luckily, I store mostly everything in plastic. I let him know that we have a baby, so please don’t use anything that will hurt my child.

Next, we bought ourselves a nice, light beige (the color is called stone but I think it should be called sand) sofa. I couldn’t argue with the price – $299 for a three seater sofa with a practically unlimited five year warranty. Those of you with children, you will understand. Children are rough on sofas.

However, there’s a problem – we can’t sit on the darn thing without generating a ton of static electricity. I’m scared of destroying our computers. I’ve asked on Twitter and looked online, and my best bet is to spray it with liquid fabric softener. I called the Brick, where I bought it, and they had no idea how to fix the problem. Apparently, though, despite their lack of knowledge, it’s a fairly common problem with microfiber furniture.

But I don’t use fabric softener! I feel silly for not adding it to my list of how to avoid buying fabric softener sheets, because I don’t even use liquid fabric softener. I use vinegar in a Downy ball. I’m sure that the Downy company would be horrified to know that you can use vinegar in the ball, toss it in the wash, and it will open in the rinse cycle, just like when using Downy.

Vinegar doesn’t make your clothes smell like vinegar. It rinses clean. I think that the first time I ever heard of using it was when watching my grandmother wash clothes with a wringer washer. She would have two metal buckets – one with clear water and one with vinegar.

So what does vinegar do? Amazingly, it does a lot. It removes odors. It removes static cling. It helps with lint build-up. It softens hard water. It removes soap build-up or that horrible sizing that comes on some clothes when you buy them. Soaking colored fabric in one gallon water with one cup of vinegar will brighten them. 1/2 cup of vinegar in the rinse water will keep linen, wool, and silk from yellowing when you’re handwashing them. Soaking clothes in vinegar and water will remove coffee and tea stains. For grass stains, soak in full strength vinegar.

What else does vinegar do? Because of its acidity, it removes mold, germs, and bacteria. And it’s definitely non-toxic, so you don’t have to worry about using it around pets and children. 1/4 cup baking soda, 1 Tablespoon liquid soap, and enough vinegar to make it creamy equals a non-toxic scouring cream for bathroom and kitchen.

Every once in a while, if my baking soda is starting to get old and doesn’t work so well, I’ll pour a cup of baking soda down the kitchen drain. I follow it with a cup of *hot* vinegar (although I don’t always bother heating it) and then follow that with a full kettle of hot water. It cleans out, disinfects, and deodorizes the drain.

If you look around, you’ll find hundreds of uses for plain old white vinegar.

And … it’s cheap. However, I think that vinegar sprayed on my sofa just might void the warranty.

When the Wolves are at the Door …

Why, in that case, one must learn to cook a wolf and it is best if one can learn to do it “with grace and gusto”. I am always surprised by those who don’t understand the meaning behind “How to Cook a Wolf” by M.F.K. Fisher. It always seemed to me quite simple – when the only meat around is that of the wolves (ie., bill collectors) who are at your door, the only sensible option is to learn to cook a wolf. Have you been there? I have, and it looks quite likely that many of us will be there again.

Surprisingly, that is one of the books that I have thoroughly enjoyed in the past but which I do not own. I would really love to find a copy of it, or, even better, her later book “The Art of Cooking.”

From M.F.K. Fisher, I learned how to cook an egg, and I’ve been quite horrified ever since at people who turn the heat up high and serve dried out, brown scrambled eggs. Eggs should be cooked slowly and gently. I’m pretty certain I learned that from Fisher, because I “hear” her voice in my head, reminding me that the heat should be so very low under the eggs that I begin to wonder if the eggs are even cooking. We buy eggs at the grocery store, a dozen for $3, and we don’t think about wartime rations when an adult received one egg and 4 oz of bacon per week. How would you cook your egg if you knew that it was the only one you could have this week? If, in order to enjoy a plate of scrambled eggs, you had to save your precious weekly egg until you had sufficient?

I’ll be including some of her more delicious recipes. If I can find it, I might include her recipe for “Sludge”, a hideous concoction intended to keep body (if not soul) together. She admits that, should you not wish to eat it, it makes a nutritious dog food. Such was life in 1942.

And by the way — Happy New Year!