Dim Some (Lights!)

Ha! I was right. (kind of).

My hubby and I were trying to figure out whether or not the new dimmer switches we'd installed would actually save $$$.

My concern was that the current (and therefor the cost) would stay constant and just the resistance would be altered. Hubby didn't seem to know either way. Neither one of us are electricians.

Turns out that the old technology (called variable resistance) did indeed convert some of the resistance to heat instead of light, which kept your power consumption the same. Now, however, new dimmers are wired to interrupt the current to reduce the light, rather than converting the resistance to something else.

So yes - new dimmers do save you money!

CFLs, Here We Go!

Today at Costco we bought some compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Recently we've installed some dimmer switches in a couple of rooms (as well as two new bathroom fans complete with timers... LOVE the timers :-) We were looking forward to replacing our old light bulbs with the new CFLs, but apparently you can't use the type we bought with dimmer technology.

However you CAN use them in recessed fixtures, so they'll be going in our hallway. I can probably put the rest in various locations in the basement as well (we bought a package of ten).

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get them installed, and we can start saving more energy :-)