A couple of years ago I was in Home Depot and saw a nite lite that was based on motion detection (the "dawn/dusk" crap never works in the home). Anyways, it has a wee 7W bulb incandescent (that normally would be used in those small nite lites).
We put the lite in the power room - and it has been GREAT! One of the most used rooms in the house (where we wash our hands the most) - and never have to worry about flicking on or off the ceiling light. It stays on for about 1 minute after you leave. Not a lot of lite of course, but enough to wash your hands. Never changed the bulb yet.
Mind you it was $20 but when you factor in having to use the 40W bulb all the time, and of course sometimes we come straight from the kitchen and don't want to use our fingers (or the kids to) to flick the switch - it saves cleaning and fidgeting.
I bot a similar "battery" powered light from Walmart but it never worked right - stayed on most of the time. You have to mount it somewhere. So I took it back.
Certainly like the motion detection stuff but not without it's problems. Using it to turn on the bathroom light and then to keep it on while having a shower would be a problem.
Anyways I agree with your point overall - I have changed the main floor lights to CFLs - the ones that are on most of the day solid. Not worth changing all of them.
cheers
iSOB
"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
Tuco (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)
"An umbrella with holes is better than no umbrella at all."
Dr. Alexander Elder on using stops.
