ajtj99's Market Pulse

[jdaasoc]

With boys, time in the bathroom is about 15 seconds tops. You save a little on hot water too. <g>

I agree with on payback requires lights being on 3-4 hours a day to make it reasonable payback.

I have basement office lit with 12 4' fluorescent bulbs I replaced 40 watt bulbs with 34 watt energy savings bulbs about 10 years ago as they failed.

Since then as the ballasts fail, I have been replacing them with T8 versions which use 28 W bulbs. The ballasts cost about $20 so with about 2000 hrs use per year I can't justify pulling out working ones just to save 24 KWH per year or $3.40 for one dual light fixture.

As we are talking about energy savings, solar energy in NJ is getting very close to reasonable rate of return on investment as the concept of SREC payments from utilities make payback on investment very quick on top of federal 30% and state $1.55 per watt rebates.

http://www.njcleanenergy.com/files/file/Press%20Releases/REIPLaunchfeb2009.pdf

Latest prices on SREC payments are about $550 per MKWH. However, they still are AIG, Lehman type of potential reveune streams.