Eco Bulbs

Over the weekend, the bulb that has lit our shower for the past 6+ years burned out. That started me on a mission to replace not just that one, but all the other incandescent bulbs in our bathrooms. The kid’s bathroom has a row of 40W globes, eight in total, over the sinks, and we spend at least half an hour every night in there with him getting him bathed and ready for bed.

The first catch though is that many of the standard looking LED replacement bulbs I found were not rated for damp areas. The second was that they often included a warning that they should not be used in fully enclosed fixtures. The shower one, as well as our closet ones, are all fully enclosed.

The Cree bulbs I ended up with are damp rated, and the only restriction on fully enclosed fixtures was that they not be mixed with other bulb types.

I ended up getting a mix of 40W and 60W equivalent bulbs, rated at 6W and 9.5W respectively, to replace most of the remaining incandescent bulbs in the house, including the eight globe lights. In terms of the light they give off, they seem every bit as bright as the bulbs they were replacing, and being LED they are bright immediately – none of the 30+ seconds of warm up time you get with CFLs.

The only noticeable difference, and it is the row of eight in the bathroom where this is most apparent, is that there is a dark patch at the top of the bulb. Doesn’t affect the amount of light in the room at all.

In the walk in closet and one bathroom, the builder had fitted double bulb units (with a pair of 60W bulbs in them). I was able to also leave one bulb out using the 60W equivalent, saving even more. Of course, I could have done that with the incandescent as well to halve the power consumption. Even with just the single bulb, there is more than enough light in the small rooms these are fitted in.

Although none of the ones I have installed were attached to dimmers, the bulbs do claim to be dimmable.

Daddy Eco-Tips #1

One of the things I try to do is to be as light on the planet as possible, although it doesn’t always work out as well as I’d hoped (don’t ask me about nappies/diapers). A few things have worked out pretty well, so I thought I’d share those occasionally on here. First up, Green Toys…

Our little boy took a liking to cars, buses and trucks very early on. Initially the small Hot Wheels size cars were all he was interested in, but more recently he has been playing with some of his larger toy vehicles. School buses were a early favorite as were garbage trucks, the latter being a weekly attraction at home that he had to go and see when they came to empty the bins.

So, those two vehicles were natural choices for his first two bigger toy vehicles. The Green Toys school bus was the first we bought and we were impressed by how durable it was. Our 2 year old is not gentle on toys (currently crashing them is a favorite way to play cars), but the bus stands up to the abuse very well. 

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Vertography Blog

VertographyI’ve just launched a new blog, with the goal of providing information to help you live a greener life, without compromising on its quality. This is not information for the hard-core tree hugger, but information for everyday people. Yesterday looked at eco-friendly lighting options; today a search engine that plants trees for every 1000 searches performed (and produces great results too thanks to Yahoo!).

In addition to simple tips for greening up your life, it is also going to cover some cool green technology that is being developed or tested. Today included a post about plugin hybrid cars. And there’s lots more cool, green technology out there for us to cover!