RyanBruner
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- Sep 16, 2008
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Last year I "finished" my basement. (Well, put up insulation and actual walls with drywall, and new wiring throughout, etc.)
This room is basically one big play room for the kids, with two smaller rooms as well (a utility/furnace room, and a small little office).
I have in the main area, four light fixtures. Cheap things, just taking standard screw-in light bulbs. I planned to put in CFLs there, like I have for most of the house. But I also installed an automatic light switch. (My kids are notorious for leaving the light on, and I was getting tired of going down at night to turn everything off.)
What I discovered was that the automatic light switches apparently still send a current through the lights. For CFLs, this is bad, because they end up flashing on and off every 5 seconds or so as a result. Turns out, you have to use incandescent bulbs instead, which use way more power.
So, I'm not entirely convinced I'm saving money. Since there is apparently power always running through the lights, there is an energy trickle going on even when the switch is "off". And occasionally my kids decide to override the automatic switch, which results in 400-watts of power running all night long.
Question:
Is there such thing as an automatic light switch that would allow me to use CFLs instead? The other option would be to replace the light fixtures with regular fluorescent lighting, but I'm trying to save money, not spend a lot of money right now.
Thanks.
This room is basically one big play room for the kids, with two smaller rooms as well (a utility/furnace room, and a small little office).
I have in the main area, four light fixtures. Cheap things, just taking standard screw-in light bulbs. I planned to put in CFLs there, like I have for most of the house. But I also installed an automatic light switch. (My kids are notorious for leaving the light on, and I was getting tired of going down at night to turn everything off.)
What I discovered was that the automatic light switches apparently still send a current through the lights. For CFLs, this is bad, because they end up flashing on and off every 5 seconds or so as a result. Turns out, you have to use incandescent bulbs instead, which use way more power.
So, I'm not entirely convinced I'm saving money. Since there is apparently power always running through the lights, there is an energy trickle going on even when the switch is "off". And occasionally my kids decide to override the automatic switch, which results in 400-watts of power running all night long.
Question:
Is there such thing as an automatic light switch that would allow me to use CFLs instead? The other option would be to replace the light fixtures with regular fluorescent lighting, but I'm trying to save money, not spend a lot of money right now.
Thanks.
