Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Raine
i've been wanting to try those cfl flood lights. i have a motion sensor light in my backyard, with 2 floodlights (one lights up the side of the house, the other, the door to my storage shed 150' away). i wonder if a cfl floodlight would be comparable in brightness, and survive the on/off of a motion light
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I'm sure they could do it, but I still doubt their value over incandescents. A 20 second warm up when it's warm outside, a 60 sec warmup when it's cold... on/off cycles... There are some places I don't think CFLs are well suited.
I'm a science teacher and advocate E savings whenever I can - my students all call me the "hippie teacher" but I strongly advocate against replacing incandescants in fixtures used less than 45 minutes a day, and in fixtures not being on for more than 5 minutes at a time. First, it's never going to pay itself off, and second, it's wasteful to put a CFL with more electronics, metals, etc. in a place where it'll likely die faster.
I put some CFLs in at my parents' house. A month later, an electrician doing some work there recommended to put in motion sensors on the light switches and leave them on 'auto' to "save them money". I'm doubtful of the savings - the on/off cycles killed every one of my CFLs - I was MAD.