You Might be an Ecorenovator if…

by Tim Fulton on November 12, 2008

…you find yourself replacing hidden incandescents with CFLs in your friend’s homes. EcoRenovator forum member dremd found himself doing this same thing recently. Here are some pictures of his exploits:

As you can tell, the lucky homeowner will likely not know the difference for many many years. In fact, they may begin to wonder why their incandescent bulbs have lasted so long before the CFLs give up the ghost and the homeowner discovers what’s happened.

Most of us probably encourage good environmental practices in our friends and family, but have anyone else gone this far? Let us know in the comments.

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Related posts:

  1. EcoRenovator Project House
  2. ER Project House: Strategically Adding a Switch
  3. ER Project House: CFLs Installed – Energy Usage Down 40%
  4. DIY, Super-Efficient Fridge Uses .1 kWh a Day
  5. LA to Give Out Free CFLs to All City Residents

{ 6 comments }

1 Luc Plouffe November 14, 2008 at 3:41 pm

about CFL longevity…

…mine never lasted more than 4 years.

about as long as regular long-life incandecent bulbs

2 Pat November 14, 2008 at 4:18 pm

I’ve done this with friends and relatives. In fact some of my family members have dubbed me “The Lightbulb Fairy”, which is a funny image when you consider I’m 6’4″ and 250lbs. It helps if you live in Vermont where the state subsidies bulbs. Most of the year you can get high quality (not the Wal-Mart crud) CFLs in VT for $0.99 each. Every light in my house except the microwave light and the oven light are either CFLs or LEDs from http://www.ledlight.com

3 ben November 18, 2008 at 12:27 am

I have been known to sneak over to my parents house and replace incandescents with CFLs.

One time, my mother was telling me how much she disliked CFLs, that they have bad color and just look wrong, etc…

I found it ironic that she was standing under a pair of CFLs I had secretly switched out months earlier.

Their lights are always on. I have probably saved them a fortune by now!

4 Fredrik November 26, 2008 at 9:24 am

Ha ha! Your all nuts! 😛 But hey, if it saves the planet so why not?

5 Pat December 1, 2008 at 1:04 pm

I went to the hardware store to buy a set of LED Christmas lights and I found an extra sale on CFLs. They were selling 75w and 100w GE equivalents for $0.99 each and 5-packs of 60w GE equivalents for $0.88 each. Everyone I know is getting bulbs as stocking stuffers. Thank you VT for being an awesome state that supports conservation. Just so everyone knows Efficiency Vermont (our state efficiency utility) estimates that they have saved enough energy to prevent the construction of a second wood chip power plant (http://www.burlingtonelectric.com/specialtopics/mcneil.htm)

6 a October 14, 2011 at 11:11 am

what abuot mecury in the CFLs

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