My younger son – the one who still lives with us, the one who can eat anything he wants and still stay skinny – won a big glass jar full of candy by guessing how many pieces were in it. We are such pigs. We have no self-control. The jar is over half empty now. I need to take a long walk up a steep hill. Every day this week. Fortunately there’s a steep hill about half a mile from my house. Unfortunately, I probably won’t make time to walk up it every day this week. Besides, it’s supposed to rain and get cold. And we’re getting close to Halloween. [sigh] Eating season is here.
We finally worked on our kitchen ceiling this weekend. It looks horrible. We used a texture paint that we got at Lowe’s. The texture came out uneven, rougher in some places than in others, and the color is patchy yellow and white. We have to do something else. We are contemplating something that I had previously said we cannot do but which now seems like maybe not such a bad idea after all. I am still trying to think of something better but the inspiration just isn’t coming. The ceiling tiles we were originally planning to use are just way too expensive.
Lowe’s now has LED light bulbs that really are as bright as a 60 watt incandescent bulb. I don’t know if I could have brought myself to buy a $30 light bulb if I hadn’t seen the one that Number One Son has but he showed it off to us last time we were at his house so we bought one and put it in our living room light. I was afraid of it being too blue or even green but it’s a very nice bright white, almost like natural daylight. We’ll be buying some more of those as our CFL’s burn out.
We’re finally starting to see some fall colors in our area but, because of this year’s weather, I don’t think nature’s show will be as spectacular as it has been in other years. I’m a big fan of green myself and I sort of hate to see it go but, strangely, bare limbs are interesting so whatever the season there’s always something nice to look at when you live in the woods.
October 17th, 2011 - 9:03 am
How long are the LED bulbs supposed to last? I’m finding the CFLs don’t last as long as claimed. But if the LEDS really did last ten years or something, I’d be okay with paying $30 for a light bulb.
especially if you don’t have to don a hazmat suit if one breaks…
October 17th, 2011 - 9:52 am
It’s supposed to last for 25,000 hours.
October 17th, 2011 - 4:23 pm
The next big thing in lighting will be natural-spectrum LEDs, which will last a REALLY long time and which will use even less energy than CFLs. CFL lifetime is impacted by the way they’re used, by the way; they’re best for being turned on and left on for extended periods of time (say, in a lamp that’s on for several hours at a whack). They’re less well-suited to things like bathroom fixtures, where they are turned off and on for shorter periods and greater frequencies. I’m still a CFL fan, but that’s with the knowledge that in ten years they’ll be mostly history, too.
October 17th, 2011 - 6:32 pm
I have two LED bulbs that I’ve had for years, neither of them very bright like the one I bought last weekend. But both of them still work like they did from day 1. I think one is 1 watt, the other is 2 watts. Not very bright at all. The bulb mentioned in this post uses 13 watts, and is all sorts of blinding bright. The package claimed it would last 25+ years. If it’s going to last 25,000 hours, that’s 2.85 years of constant “on” which in the case of the “other” kinds of bulbs we’ve seen, constant on is easier than switching on and off. On the other hand, LED’s are commonly used in applications where constant cycling on and off are expected – like color displays, really old calculator displays, newer car taillights, traffic lights, etc.
Another advantage of LED lights is they don’t burn out suddenly and get dark. They gradually lose their brightness, and may start to flicker, before they go out. I don’t know if the “60 watt equivalent” LED light is one LED, or an array.. if it’s multiple, then the whole light won’t go out at once.
October 17th, 2011 - 7:53 pm
Didn’t the Mythbusters bust the “it’s better to leave light bulbs on” myth? I remember they did something with all 3 kinds of bulbs a couple of years ago.
October 18th, 2011 - 6:43 am
Yeah, they did, but they were only looking at power consumption, not the impact the on-and-off had on the lifespan of the bulb. (IIRC)
I admit to a dislike of the swirly CFL bulbs; that may be partly because the stores local to me only have a few brands and they’re probably the cheaper awfuller ones, but the light seems harsh to me.
I think I’d rather wait for good LEDs than go searching for more pricey and allegedly “better” CFLs, though.
October 18th, 2011 - 7:29 am
I think $30 is too expensive.
October 18th, 2011 - 3:36 pm
For CFLs, I prefer the ones that enclose the “swirly tube” in a frosted globe that softens the harshness. I find the light from those ones indistinguishable, in “warm soft light” terms, from incandescents.