How much more efficient are fluorescent bulbs to incandescent?

Question

How much money would the average house save per year by using flourscent bulbs? How much do the bubls cost?

Answer 1

I have a 15 W fluorescent blub that puts out the same amount of light as a 60 W incandescent, so its four times as efficient and you save 45W per hour of use.
So if you use the bulb 10 hours a day for a year that's about 164 kWhr a year difference. At 15c per kWhr, that's a savings of over $24 dollars a year.
the bulb itself cost me about $6 compared to about $1 for an incandescent buld.

Also, fluorescent bulbs last about 2-6 times longer than incandescents, so you buy fewer of them.

Answer 2

They are better by roughly a factor of four. The savings depend, of course, on the number of lamps and on how long they are used, but compact fluorescent lamps have become quite inexpensive and it makes sense to install them in all fixtures which are used more than occasionally. Home Depot sells a pack of six, equivalent to 60-watt incandescent bulbs, for ten bucks.

Answer 3

The first answer is correct, but you could also consider LED lights where you don't need a lot of brilliance. We light our den with half LEDs. Each LED saves almost 100%. They use miliwatts instead of watts.