posted on July 12, 2004 02:44:59 PM new
I am burning up right now in our shop. Thermometer reads 84 degrees. Because we have a retro home furnishings shop, we have alot of floor, table, and swag lamps running 40 watt bulbs all the time, plus two 500 watt overhead flood lamps to light the main floor. It is a waste to have Air Conditioning installed because our shop has a Bay Door that we raise to attract more shoppers. My only chance to remain cool while I type up my auctions is Flourescent Light Bulbs in the 7-14 watt range. This of course is a triple benefit because we get the same lighting, we end up with a lower electric bill, and hopefully we will stay cooler.
Any suggestions where to find these bulbs outside of eBay for perhaps $1-2 each in a quantity of 40 or 50???
posted on July 12, 2004 02:59:53 PM new
The best place I have found is Home Depot. Not super cheap. I think if you need a bunch of them, they might give you some kind of a discount and deliver. You might also want to try office depot. I KNOW they deliver to businesses and give discounts. Sorry I couldn't be more help
posted on July 12, 2004 03:00:39 PM new
Rusty, I just did a Yahoo shopping search and the 1st one that came up is bulbs.com. The home page says 13w for 99 cents. I didn't look any further. Louise
posted on July 12, 2004 04:08:45 PM new
Any fans going?
Bet sales will inprove if cooler. I know I would not stay long is a 84% store.Get rid of those 2 500 watt items would save you about .08 cents an HOUR on your bill.
posted on July 12, 2004 04:35:33 PM new
the overheads have to stay on. it is too dark otherwise in this building. I'll check into the bulbs.com site. That sounds like a good start. I just counted our lamps on the lower floor (where it is a bit cooler) and there are 37 lamps using 40 watts a piece. we're open 7 hours a day, 5 days a week so our bill is about $150, which is really not bad.
I have a good fan blowing warm air out the top floor window, a ceiling fan up there, and an industrial wind machine blowing over the loft. Downstairs I have a good fan blowing my direction, so I stay somewhat cool. I also have 2 regular doors open and the garage bay door open. Thermometer now reads 86. It is obviously all of the lighting that is keeping this place warmer than it should be. The shop is about 1200 square feet of floor, with about 300 sq ft in the loft. The ceiling is about 30 feet high. In the winter it is great because we have a small heater than we can turn on for 2-3 hours to warm it up to normal, then we can shut it off and let the lights keep us warm. Funny how that works. I spoke with another shop owner that sells similar items and his electric bill is about $600 in the winter compared to our $150 during winter. Our building is very well insulated.
posted on July 12, 2004 05:04:31 PM new
In our area, the major hardware chains occasionally run specials on fluorescent tubes. I stock up when I find a sale. Definitely get rid of those 500 watt lamps. Your savings in electricty alone will buy a lot of fluorescent tubes even at full retail. Those two lamps alone are putting out more energy than a standard microwave oven. The one drawback you need to be aware of if you take your auction pictures in the store. Many cameras have trouble with fluorescent lights and the pictures can come out with a green tinge. If your camera has a white balance, you'll be o.k. Otherwise, it's a hassle sometimes, and extra work to get rid of the green with photo editing software.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on July 12, 2004 05:18:00 PM new
We've gotten some good buys at Costco--better than Home Depot's prices.
Also, have you considered installing solar panels? Doesn't sound to me as though you'd need very much solar for that shop. We have solar on our cabin now, and on our house, and it's a dream come true. Depends of course on how long you plan to keep the shop.
On our cabin, when the sun hits the roof in the a.m. our batteries are at full capacity in a half hour. We use it all day (don't do washing and drying of clothes, though, and no micrwave) and use about 15% of the available power. Next morning, ditto.
With our house, we have most of our circuits on solar now, including all the usual appliances a home has. It has cut our power bill 70 - 75%.
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posted on July 12, 2004 06:14:55 PM new
Road,,,look at this auction. 590 834 6556,,,,after you do, come back and I'll tell ya about the greatness of these. I too run solar here in my So. Cal. warehouse.
I've been kind of interested in solar for a while. My house has a flat roof with a 3' parapet wall. The building has a straight-on North/South orientation.
Still, not knowing the cost to install and given that I have a 25% employee discount from PG&E, I'm not sure it would be cost-effective. My electric bill is generally less than $30.
Also, the temp here seldom goes over 90 degrees. I have a couple of window refrigeration units but hardly ever use them.
posted on July 12, 2004 06:28:27 PM new
I don't know where you are located, but you can buy 4 ft. flourescent tube for as low as 99 cents if you are near a Home Depot, they have them. Also out here in CA OSH sells them cheap. What ever you do, DO NOT GET 6 FT. TUBES!! They will kill you on price. The idiot that designed my kitchen put in 6 ft. tubes. Cost: $8.00 each!!!!! It takes 4 to refill my ballasts. Lucy, with a light bil like yours, forget it. The cost of instsallation & the panels will take forever to put you in the black.
Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine
[ edited by sanmar on Jul 12, 2004 06:33 PM ]
posted on July 12, 2004 07:26:16 PM new
Lucy,,,,,O.k. I believe your ELECTRIC use bill is $30.00 but what is your REAL total electric bill?
Mine,,,,,crinkle,,,
$23.15 acutal energy
$10.07 just for the previlidge of being their customer.
.86
1.33
.6
6.88 street sweeping fee,,(collected from EVERY unit for 150 feet on BOTH sides of the alley and he drives right down the MIDDLE of the street on accasion blowing DUST everywhere! 30 seconds and he's gonnnnnnnnnnnne......
$42.29 Due by 7/30/04
Motors and things that make HEAT are what cost us ALL money......
See that auction number and you can build a solar swamp cooler. Once your initial costs have been met, FREE cooling.......It won't take Long either....
posted on July 12, 2004 08:30:28 PM new
Lucy: I don't know if it would be economically feasible for you to put in solar panels. And ours won't pay for itself for about 10 years--but we are raving environmentalists and don't like generators. At 6,000 feet we don't need air conditioning except for about 2 days each summer. We just love seeing that meter running backwards. LOVE it. A warm fuzzy feeling--but it's not for everyone.
And there is no electricity in the area where our cabin is. We lit our cabin with kerosene and Coleman lamps for 75 years (5 generations), cooked on a wood stove, sometimes outdoors on a camp stove. Then modernization took over--we got telephones, propane stoves (indoors!), and now solar.
Jack: I looked at that generator-thingy. Too late for us. Looks interesting for people who need cooling, though!
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posted on July 12, 2004 09:06:13 PM new
Road for Your situation.,,,,,that D.C. motor is for Ceiling fan circulation. The 12 volt motor mounts on the ceiling,inside the upper crawl space, you put a shaft on it through the room ceiling,,,,get a Casa Blanca type fan blade and install it on the end of the shaft sticking out from ceiling.....decorative AND practical. 24 hours a day, will cost you nothing more in the long run. heat rises,,,,hence Winter,,,Blows that heat around,,,,and in summer,,,,cools as any Casa blanca fan does.
Mine runs 24/7.......makes it NICE......... At one time I had 15 REAL solar panels making me All the electricty I needed,,,,,Then I found two huge ones and sold all the other ones on e bay.$$$$$$$$$$. two work just great!!!! I have the battery banks. regulators,,inverters,,for seven years I was 100% solar.....then,,,I got the computer,,,,,y2k ended up being a farce,,,,So I hooked up with the city.....
posted on July 12, 2004 09:11:45 PM new
Jack, Lucy lives in San Luis Obispo, Swamp Coolers are not good there, the humidity is too high. We don't have these added charges that you are discussing, i.e street sweeping, etc. I can't see how she can come out ahead with solar energy. If were 20 yrs. younger, I would sesrecly look into putting it in.
Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine
Jack, without my employee discount, my actual electric usage bill is pretty close to yours. My bill (due end of July also) is $24.08. Factoring in the discount makes it around $32. No charge for street sweeping here. They come around every few weeks in those big trucks with the brooms on the sides.
You must be with So Cal Edison. They do the sweeping??? Strange...
Sanmar's right. Humidity here is around 65%. Just perfect as far as I'm concerned. Swamp coolers make no sense.
I'm thinking the only reason I would put solar panels on the roof is, as Roadsmith says, to watch the meter run backwards. I wonder what PG&E would think about that? An employee selling power back to them!
posted on July 12, 2004 09:32:08 PM new
City of Anaheim. They WON'T let Edison in here...Talk about Monopolies....Edison offered me some kind of Green power thing years ago,,,Once I said Anaheim, click,,,end of conversation.....
posted on July 12, 2004 10:03:28 PM new
I remember when the LA Dept. of Water & Power (talk about a monopoly...) asked everyone to conserve water. We all did, to the extent that they said, Hey, wait a minute! We didn't want you to conserve THAT much! The sewers are getting clogged.
Kinda funny, in a way.
That was, I think, in the late '70s. I escaped from the morass that is LA in 1975.
posted on July 12, 2004 11:55:28 PM newrusty
Here's a great way to save money & generate a lot less heat than the incandescent bulbs you are using in your floor, table & swag lights.
Look in HD for compact fluorescent bulbs with the EPA energy star (saw them the other day for 5 for 12.95) They last a lot longer than an incandescent bulb & burn much cooler, so use a lot less electricity for the same amount of light. If you replaced just 4 out of 30 bulbs you can save 100.00 over the life of the lights. Imagine what you can save if you replaced all your lamps with them & how much cooler it would be.
BTW, I am using one right now & they do not throw a cold light, the glow is soft, just like the usual light bulbs, you wouldn't know difference. They screw in just like a regular bulb & the bulb is a swirled tube, looks kinda like a soft ice cream cone.
Big money saver & highly recommended by the EPA.
Give them a try, you'll like them.
posted on July 13, 2004 05:23:10 AM new
I agree with Jack about those compact fluorescent bulbs. We have them all over our house and they cast a fairly warm light, not cold at all.
Also, you can get fluorescent bulbs, the 4-foot length, in a warmer light, too, which I would definitely prefer in a shop selling older furnishings.
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