Lightbulb choices for new house

14 years ago

We are building a new house and the electrician has asked us to choose lightbulbs. We would like to save energy. He mentioned halogen, incandescent, CFL. We have undercabinet lighting, recessed cans, florescent clouds, bath vanity lights, outside lights, to name a few. He also mentioned that CFL are not dimmable. Is that true? We also have some wall sconces in the stairway to the the second floor. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Comments (3)

azlighting
14 years ago
There are dimmable CFLs out there, the original CFLs were not designed to be dimmed, but people did anyway causing a high failure rate. There are currently new dimmable CFLs on the market out there.

The ballast on a residential screw-in CFL is very small compared to a commercial CFL pin type lamp. That is where the problem lies.

I would do a mixture of all three. leave the incandescents for dimmable and exterior fixtures, and halogen and CFLs for interior fixtures.
housavvy
14 years ago
That's good advice from azlighting. Unfortunately dimmable cfl's are a lot of money and are not nearly as dimmable as incandescent.
ginger_light
14 years ago
Dimmable CF:'s are much better priced than even 6 months ago. Use CFL's in fixtures where they don't show. Be sure to check the color of the bulbs and use the same everywhere. Buy the best bulbs you can afford. Trying to save money with cheap generic brands won't work becuase they don't last as long as they should and the color is never consistent. If mixing with incandescent bulbs, use a cfl at 3500K or warmer. The 4000K's will look to blue in comparison. Keep the incandescents or halogens or xenons to only decorative, open type fixtures where the bulbs will show. There are very good LED undercabinet fixtures on the market today that are also warm or cool. Keep all your color temperatures alike and you will be happy with the result.