Don't touch the surface of a quartz halogen lamp with bare fingers. If you do, carefully clean the quartz surface with a gentle solvent such as alcohol to avoid weak spots that often lead to early lamp failure.
Want to save money? Get rid of those old incandescent bulbs.
Standard incandescent light bulbs are extremely inefficient, wasting 95% of their energy (electricity) as heat, with only 5% converted into visible light. This makes them a costly option for lighting your home. Replacing them with some of the wide range of new energy efficient CFL or halogen bulbs will help save you money.
How much can you save?
Click the following link and follow these two simple steps:
1. Choose an inefficient bulb type from the drop down list and the Wattage you want to compare.
2. Choose one of the efficient lighting alternatives to calculate savings over lifetime of bulb.
Try our savings calculator to see how the dollars add up
Click here to download the bulb calculation sheet
Take a look at the comparison figures and see the savings for yourself:
Comparison of 100W incandescent light bulb with an equivilent new generation halogen bulb or CFL
|
Standard incandescent (least energy efficient) |
New generation Halogen bulb (more energy efficient) |
CFL (most energy efficient) |
|
| Lamp wattage (watts) | 100 | 70 | 20 |
| Purchase price (RRP) | $1.29 | $5.95 | $7.00 |
| Average lamp life (hours) | 1000 | 2000 | 6000 |
| Annual running costs (based on 3 hours/day) | $25.15 | $17.61 | $5.03 |
| Total running cost over 6000 hours | $137.82 | $96.47 | $27.56 |
| Cost of replacing lamps over 6000 hours | $7.74 | $17.85 | $7.00 |
| Total lifetime cost over 6,000 hrs (energy usage + replacement bulbs) | $145.56 | $114.32 | $34.56 |
| Total savings over incandescent (6,000 hrs or 5.5 years) | $31.24 | $111.00 |
* Costs and savings based on assumption each bulb will be on for 1095 hours per year (approximately 3 hours per day), and an average residential cost of electricity of 22.97cents/ kWh (Source: MED Energy Data File 2008). 6000 hours is the minimum rated lifespan of a quality CFL of the CFL bulb by comparison to the standard incandescent bulb (note some CFL bulbs are now rated up to 15,000 hours providing far greater savings potential). Source: Electricity Commission.
As you can see, over the lifetime of a standard CFL bulb the electricity cost savings amount to many times the initial purchase price.
Comparison of 50W standard halogen spotlight with an equivilent IRC halogen spotlight
| Standard halogen spotlight | IRC halogen spotlight (high efficiency) | |
| Lamp wattage (watts) | 50 | 35 |
| Purchase price (RRP) | $3.00 | $9.99 |
| Average lamp life (hours) | 2000 | 5000 |
| Annual running costs (based on 3 hours/day) | $12.58 | $8.80 |
| Total running cost over 6000 hours | $57.43 | $40.20 |
| Cost of replacing lamps over 5000 hours | $7.50 | $9.99 |
| Total lifetime cost over 5,000 hrs (energy usage + replacement bulbs) | $64.93 | $50.19 |
| Total savings over incandescent (5,000 hrs or 5.5 years) | $14.74 |
* Costs and savings based on assumption each bulb will be on for 1095 hours per year (approximately 3 hours per day), and an average residential cost of electricity of 22.97cents/ kWh. 5,000 hours is the minimum rated lifespan of a quality IRC halogen spotlight (Source: MED Energy Data File 2008).
These figures show that energy IRC halogen spotlights (low voltage) offer lifetime savings when compared with existing technology equivalents.
To find more ways to save money in your home by being more energy efficient, visit the EECA EnergywiseTM website.
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CFLs contain less mercury than an amalgam dental filling
Quality CFLs contain a maximum of 5mg of mercury sealed within the glass tubing, that's less than 1% of the mercury found in an amalgam dental filling.
