Replacing a New Light Fixture

On March 30 I posted about replacing the light fixture over my desk.  It was an easy DIY project.  The beveled fixture was aesthetically appealing perfect for adding a bit of pizzaz while trying to sell the house.  Despite the fact that the fixture used 25 W specialty bulb at a cost of $3.99 for 4 we went ahead and installed it.  The layout of the house means lights are on most of the time on the lower level that is the main living area and mostly underground.  The first week we went through 4 of the bulbs.  Thinking it was just a fluke we bought more bulbs and replaced the burnt out bulbs.  We replace bulbs again before going on vacation mid-May and again in June.  Finally I had enough!  First we were spending more in kWh just to have this light on but the price of replacing bulbs every other week was getting rediculous!

A couple of days ago we picked up an eco-friendly light fixture to replace the fixture we had installed in March.  We opted for a more utilitarian fixture that would hold CFL bulbs.  We put two 14W CFL bulbs  for a total of  28W compared to the 100 W of the other fixture so we are saving at least 72W when the light is on.  The reality is had we not replace this fixture in the first place for resale value we would have put an energy efficient fixture in instead of a fluff fixture.

I love the new fixture! It is energy efficient, low cost to operate and has an excellent light output.  The two CFL bulbs put out the same light as two 60W bulbs.  It's nice and bright without costing a lot of money to turn on and I fully expect to get a good 5 years worth of use out of the CFL bulbs in comparison to the under 2 weeks for the 25W designer bulbs.

Garden Gnome
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