I continue to be amazed by the issues on which a marriage hangs. Let me explain : earlier this year I replace all of the incandescent bulbs in our house with CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs).

CFLs are a no-brainer from an energy and economic standpoint: the bulbs are more expensive initially, about $4 (without frequent PG&E rebates) vs. less than a dollar for incandescents. But a 25-watt CFL saves $8 a year vs. a 100-watt incandescent (both give the same amount of light), meaning that the bulb pays for itself in 6 months.

CFLs also last about 10 times longer than incandescents, which also puts one ahead, both fiscally and from an aggravation viewpoint – the bulbs will almost never need replacing. CFLs do contain a small amount of mercury, and care should be taken to recycle them properly, but again, this will be an infrequent exercise.

However, it turns out that my spouse disapproved, vocally, of the cool-white CFL that replaced the incandescent bulb in our porch light. It was ‘glaring and odd-looking.’ Back at the hardware store, we discovered a CFL intended especially for outdoor fixtures – it had an amber sheath around it. No sooner was it installed but that we were informed it was ‘too dim.’

Halloween came, along with the red bulb and socket adapter that powers our ghost and skeleton lights, so the complaining died down for the duration.

In the meantime, LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulbs have started to appear in stores. LEDs are to CFLs what CFLs are to incandescents – some approximation of a 10x reduction in power. Earlier this year, I replaced a 20-watt halogen ‘task lighting’ bulb with a (rather brighter) 1-watt LED, and liked both the result and the savings. And, last year, we replaced 4 kilowatts of dilapidated holiday lights with 200 watts of new LED bulbs, to great effect.

Back to the porch light: the spouse is already complaining about ‘too bright’ and ‘glaring,’ but I kind of like our new 1.5 watt porch light – from 60 watts down to less than 2 over a period of 3 years, with no need for a solar panel installation or other major outlay. I just need to find a frosted, warm-white version of this bulb, and we’ll get the marriage back on track… great $9 investment…

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