I’d Like To Order The 4 Bombillas Please

Perhaps you are thinking watts up here? This post is not for dim bulbs, but all those out there who love to pinch pennies or make the buffalo on a nickel complain. Tightwads rejoice! The local hardware chain, Home Depot*, now has quite a few shelves just full of sizes and selections of the low wattage, high output light bulbs.

The package promises that a 14 watt bulb is equivalent to 60 watts. There are some nice choices in the lighting as well. Soft white, bright white, and day light. There were also various equivalent wattages from which to choose. Choosing the day light was a no-brainer for me since it is still winter and gets dark early. These are supposed to last the equivalent of 9 years or 10,000 hours. Drawing 14 watts for 60 watts of light will save about 75% on electric costs. Sounded like a great deal to me and I bought a couple of four packs for $8.97 each. Hopefully the prices will go down as they become more popular.

Actually, these are kind of cute. Without my glasses, they look like soft swirled ice cream cones. There are some downsides to these. The bulbs contain mercury and should not be placed in any lamp that could be knocked over and the bulb broken or hit by flying toys or footballs. They will also need to be properly recycled so that we are not putting the mercury (which is highly poisonous) back into the soil and water.

When you turn on the light, it takes just a little bit of time for the light to power up to its full brightness level, but for a 75% savings on my electric rates I’m not having any problem with that at all.
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(Disclaimer: I have not yet checked the other stores for selection and pricing.)

And furthermore: if you need a little laugh, check out the sounds that animals make when humans say the sounds in various languages, it’s not the same. Unfortunately, though, buffalo was not listed on this site and the only reference on another site listed a sound for a particular life activity that has nothing to do with saving pennies and nickels – http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/animals.html.