LOWER ELECTRIC BILLS because of FLASHLIGHTS!

NO JOKE!
My electric bill went from about $85-$90.00 A MONTH to about $45-35.00 a month!!! since i got into flashlights!
I saw about a $10.00 decrease every month. Of coarse my damn lights are expensive but at least I have a bit more of a reason to keep it up and enjoy it!
This months bill was about $35.00. I use my flashlights all the freakin' time!
Anyone else come to this conclusion?

LOL! Been playing with the lights out huh? Just be careful your neighbors dont think that you broke in. It's happened too many times here.

Lights off = less electricity. Flashlights on = battery charger always on. :laughing:

Well, I'm sure it has had an effect and I don't want to burst your bubble, but when did you "get into flashlights"? A $10 decrease each month since Jan. might just mean the weather is warming up. On adverage or so I've been told, you only spend 1/4 of your electric bill on lights.

If my electric bill was only $90 every month i would be sooooooo friggin happy.

...ok i'm not even going there...

iNDiGLo

DaFABRICATA said:

NO JOKE!
My electric bill went from about $85-$90.00 A MONTH to about $45-35.00 a month!!! since i got into flashlights!
I saw about a $10.00 decrease every month. Of coarse my damn lights are expensive but at least I have a bit more of a reason to keep it up and enjoy it!
This months bill was about $35.00. I use my flashlights all the freakin' time!
Anyone else come to this conclusion?

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Yes! I have done the same. In fact, I have found it most relaxing to shower using an LED light illuminating the room rather than the bank of vanity lights over the mirror. And at night, I don't leave any lights on I don't need to use at the moment and very often use one of my flashlights to move around or find something. It can be done. I don't want to give any more money than necessary to the electric company; especially since they raised the rates by 24 %. I figure I can buy a whole lot of batteries with the money I don't spend on electricity. Another thing I am trying to watch is doing more things requiring light during the daylight hours. The sun is the best of all lights and it doesn't send out monthy bills. How cool is that! You're not alone.

I have been using flourescent light bulbs in my house which also save electricity! Some fuxtures do not fit the newer flourescent bulbs becasue they are slightly larger. Some states are actually passing laws to use only flourescent bulbs and do away with incandescent bulbs.
I use my lights around the house alot also. Instead of flippin on all of the basement lights on, I just grab one of my lights!

There is more of a tendency to leave lights on when leaving a room if you don't have a light with you. :candle:

It wouldn't hurt to check how much you spend on CR123's each month

I go through about 4-maybe 6 123 cells a month. I bought 154 energizer e2 for about $1.20 each.

My bill runs 21-24 a month as is. Seems the base rate is 17.95 with nothing on. I only use a few hund kilo watts a month, mostly for ac and fridge.

kilowatt-hours, you mean?

frosty said:

Lights off = less electricity. Flashlights on = battery charger always on

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The theory is sound. With household lighting you use unnecessarily powerful incandescent lights all the time. Even if you convert to CCFL (at a considerable price) it's still several tens of watts of light, and it's still often way more than you need.
With flashlights (I'm assuming LED lights here) you only use, say, 1 watt lamps for just as long as they are required, which is much more efficient.

Batteries will eventually die, but €8 will buy you a dozen 2500mah off-brand AAs on eBay, shipping included. They won't hold their charge for long, but at the rate you'd use them high self-discharge wouldn't a problem.
Or if you use 123s, €12 will get you four rechargeables and a charger.

So all things included you use a lot less energy if you only use flashlights in the house.

Then again, if I had to only use my flashlights in the house I'd have to squint all the time and I'd trip over stuff a lot.

My personal suggestion to save up: add a few Luxeon LEDs (with AC adapters) to your existing household lights. You use the LEDs when you only need a little light (most of the time), and you can always turn on the incandescents when you need to find that damn little screw that just fell on the floor...
If you are a real pennypincher you could go a step further and also add a few standard white LEDs. Use the standard LEDs to get enough light that you don't bump into things, use the Luxeons for intermediate lighting and fire up the incandescents when you need high brightness.

This way your lighting will still be highly efficient, but you'll avoid all the hassle of having to carry your light around with you.

Edit: hmm, I though bare Luxeon LEDs cost less than they actually do... perhaps the best idea is still to just stick with low-power CCFLs.

You can take that savings and put it towards buying more flashlights :devil:

Edit: hmm, I though bare Luxeon LEDs cost less than they actually do... perhaps the best idea is still to just stick with low-power CCFLs.

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For something like a desk lamp, or lamps around the house, 7 to 9W CFLs are available for around $2-2.50. Three cost less than a single Cree LED. In some cases in our area the CFLs are subsidized and actually cheaper than similar incandescent lamps, I've picked up 13W CFLs at Lowes for $0.75! One nice benefit is that the lower wattage CFLs (9 or less watts) is that they truly are the same size as incandsecent bulbs, since the length of tube is shorter.

For someplace where you need serious light output, such as a workbench, I would bite the bullet and buy a good electronic linear fluorescent fixture. The lamps are more efficient (up to 100 lumens per watt, compared to 60 lumens per watt for CFLs), and the fixtures are much more efficient at actually projecting the lumens where you need them without glare. Finally, I find color rendering can be better with good quality linear lamps.

For walking around the house though, carrying good LED flashlights is a great idea, as that rules out the need to leave lights on where you aren't actually sitting down and working on something.

One final thing that I've done is bought cheap photocell controlled LED night lights from Home Depot (6 for $5) and replaced the little 5mm LEDs with more efficient ones. With dark-adapted eyes, just a few of those can light up every room in the house enough to see around by, power consumption is negligible -- altogether about one watt, for half the day. Energy cost is about $0.50 for an entire year.

I've got almost more light than I NEED almost everywhere in my house, the garage, and outside at the flip of a switch. I also don't use rechargables so I am not using electricy the charge my lights. I use Energizer E2 lithiums 123 cells with all my surefires. I was simply stating that since I got into this hobby/obsession my electric bill has gone down due to me using the flashlights at night as opposed to house lights. I mostly use my E1L with a modded KL1 head and a 2 stage tailcap, I will also use the L5 with a 2 stage tailcap most often.
As for the police comin' by thinking I'm a intruder.....has yet to happen. I doubt my neighbors would call considering how often I'm outside with my lights shining them at stuff. It's a good thing considering my house was built in the 1920's and the heating bill is close to $300.00 a month in the winter to keep this hole at about 51-53 degrees!!!
At any rate it made me realize how often a flashlight can be used to do the little things at night that don't require a ton of light. I really like using it for trips to the bathroom at night. On low it preserves the night adapted vision and doesn't wake me as much and the high for when I check out the back yard. I've spent a ton of money on lights over the last few months. I am happy I did, and like all of them all too much! I find so many instances during the course of the day that are made easier by having a light on me. I guess the lower electric bill is just a positive outcome of my preference to use my great flashlights at night.

I have also changed a bunch of my bulbs around the house to the energy saving twisty flouresent types.

When I walk around the house at night, I usually have a single cell LED light in my pocket. I bought one with a side switch to make it easy to turn on and off with one hand (Target has a similar model from River Rock for about $10 I think). I use an Eneloop NiMH battery that lasts a long time between charges.

Having the LED handy in my pocket means that I'm not switching my CFLs on and off all the time (which can shorten their life for a few seconds of light). It also means that if my wife heads off to sleep early, I don't disturb her when I need something in the room.

Task lighting is a great way to reduce energy usage.

I have a 13w CFL desk lamp that puts out a really big, bright pool of light right by my laptop's keyboard.

My wife uses a Mighty-Brite book light for her laptop and for reading in her comfy chair. It runs on 3 AAA Eneloop NiMHs that also last a really long time. It can either be clipped to a book/laptop or free-stand on a table. The goose neck makes it a really versatile light for reading or any task where you need light in a specific spot. When Iowa had its bad ice storm about a month ago, that Mighty-Brite light got used a lot! We were without power for a little over 2 days.

http://www.mightybright.com/Book_Lights/79/ProductDetail.aspx

bridgman said:

It wouldn't hurt to check how much you spend on CR123's each month

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LOL. I'm betting battery cost went up more than the light bil went down.

eebowler said:

LOL. I'm betting battery cost went up more than the light bil went down.

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Rechargeables. Recharged at work.

Ahh, just justifying an addiction.