Why so many light bulbs???

[SAHDS]

I love our house, I truly do.

BUT, we have sooooooo many lights and I am constantly running around and turning them off. It's INSANE and I cringe to think how much electricity we're wasting. Am I alone in this?

How many light bulbs do you have in your house?

Side note - I'm not even talking about lamps, just lights that came with the house, hard-wired (or whatever the term is)!

[justamama]

5 in the kitchen (ceiling fan and work light), 10 in the bath/laundry room (6 flourescent, 4 above the vanity), 1 in the hall, 1 in the toyroom, 1 in the kids' room, 4 in our room (ceiling fan). So in a 900 or so sq ft house that's 22 lightbulbs! WOW!

[vm9799]

oooh, interesting question! i'm getting ready to run the kids to school but when i get home i'm going to count!

i'll be back!

[onlyzombiecat]

10 bulbs first floor... some fixtures take more than one bulb.

12 on second floor

5 in the attic I think?

5 or 6 in the basement?

There are several bulbs burned out but that is how many spots there are for light bulbs inside my house.

[kennedy444]

We have lots of lights too but my neurotic, energy crazed husband has gone and bought ALL engergy saving bulbs and every one in the house - including dimmers - have been replaced. We still are cautious and turn off lights when we leave the room.

[Purple Sage]

We live in a small older house. Each room has one fixture that takes 2 bulbs, and there are 7 rooms including the bathroom, so that's 14 bulbs. Add the front porch, store room, and the carport with 1 bulb each, and that's 17 bulbs total. We have CFLs in in every fixture and every lamp in the house, and we keep the lights off as much as we can.

[vm9799]

we are in an older house as well, although we've done a bit of remodeling so this has most likely affected our numbers.

1st floor: 17
upstairs: 12
basement: 8
front porch: 1
back porch: 1
garage: 4

that's 43 total not including our lamps! :

every bulb on our house is either a CFL, a FL, or halogens (in our recessed lighting and cable lighting).

[Zannah]

Wow, we have 41! But I when we have gone to change a couple I have only replaced one bulb sometimes in a fixture. I simply don't see the need to have the upstairs hall, which is 4 feet long to be bright as day. Especially when we only ever turn it on to see when we're going to bed.

Oh wait, I guess I have 42 if you count the lamp on my desk... Really is a lot.

[laohaire]

Kitchen - 4 but we only use 2 (60 watts)
Dining room - 2 (40 watts)
Living room - 4 but 2 burned out about 6 months ago and we never replaced (25 watts)
Downstairs hall - 3 (15 watts)
Upstairs hall - 3 (15 watts)
Bedroom 1 - 2 (25 watts)
Bedroom 2 - 2 (25 watts)
Office - 1 (60 watts)
Bathroom - 1 (60 watts)

So, 18 total, a lot of them low wattage. We don't use lamps, only the fixtures.

We would use CFLs but my DH gets major and instant headaches with those. (He can't even shop very long because of it, and also uses CRTs instead of LCDs to avoid the headaches he gets). It's really too bad we don't have a lighting alternative that doesn't carry health issues. (We tried an LED too, omg, those are HORRIBLE).

[vm9799]

Originally Posted by laohaire

(We tried an LED too, omg, those are HORRIBLE).

i know! : my hubby insisted on replacing our christmas tree lights with LED's and i made him take them back as they gave me the worst headache to look at. i they are SO harsh!

the CFL don't seem to bother me, but those LED's are just awful.

[hillymum]

I'm not going to count! I tried to count just what I can see from right here (family room, dinning room, upstairs hallway, breakfast nook and kitchen) and could counted 30. If this is a true reflrction of this house, then we have close to 100 bulbs. I think we have 12 on at a time in the evening with children in different rooms.

[rebeccalynn]

wow, I am surprised at how many we have, but I have trained the kids to open the blinds and to not turn on the lights during the day unless it is really overcast or of course at night.

6 ceiling fans X 4 bulbs = 24
2 bathroom strips X 4 bulbs = 8
laundry room & kitchen sink = 2
master bedroom closet = 1
total = 35

[cristeen]

Front porch - 1
Foyer - 1
LR - 1
DR - 5-branch chandelier with 2 working lights
Kitchen - 3
Mud room - 2
Bathroom - 5
Office - 2
Guest room - 2
Sewing room - 2
Bedroom - 4 (?)
Basement - at least 4
Sun porch - 0

The ones that get the most use would be the front porch, the office and the kitchen. In the LR and bedroom we use lamps, and the 4-light in the bathroom is used only for shaving, the single is used the rest of the time. I do tend to have to walk through the house every evening after we're settled in and turn off the trail of lights behind my DH, though.

We have CFLs in where we can, but a lot of the house is on dimmer switches, so until they make a CFL that doesn't buzz when on a dimmer switch, or we can get them switched out, they're staying on incandescents.

[Drummer's Wife]

oh sheesh, I'll have to go count. Maybe I know for sure the kitchen has a ton of recessed? lighting, 5 different light switches, plus the art closet and pantry (oh and the microwave underneath lighting, the stove, the light on the water disenser on the fridge, etc.

it might take me a few hours to count : kidding, of course... but there are a lot. We don't even have a single lamp, the lighting that came with the house is plenty enough.

ETA: so I just counted the ones in the master bedroom (cause that's where I am sitting) and there are 22 lightbulbs - I kid you not.

4 in the celing fan, 1 over the shower, 1 over the jacuzzi, 1 in the toilet room, 1 over the main part of the bathroom, 1 in the closet and 1 on the balcony. That leaves 12 over the vanity.

[Drummer's Wife]

It didn't take me nearly as long as I though (and I had a 3 yr old helper)

we counted 48 upstairs and 60 + downstairs. There are also fluoresant sp? lighting in the garage - 8 long tubes and numerous outside lights (too cold to go count) so I'm sure we have over 125 lightbulbs in total.

That is a ton of electricity!

During the day, though, none are on as we have huge windows thru out the house and skylights upstairs.

ETA: the ironic thing is that the last place we lived (an apartment) had practically NO lighting. Just the kitchen and bathrooms. We lived in the dark for a while and bought one floor lamp which we would move around from room to room until we were able to get more lighting. I never understood why they built the place without at least lights in the bedroom ceilings.

[lightheart]

interesting, we just moved here and I never really thought... I'm going to go count...

boys room 2
office 3
office closet 1 (doesn't work, wiring needs fixed)
1/2 bath 5
kitchen 6
dine 3
living 4
little hall thingy 1
full bath 5
our bedroom 4
our bedroom closet 2 long tubes
36 inside

front porch 2
outside motion 4
6 outside

basement ?????
apartment ????
electrical room ????

then there is the one in the fridge, the freezer and the oven that makes 4 more there

[lovesdaffodils]

When we were switching to CFLs, I know it felt like a ton...

5 in kitchen, 6 dining room, 4 living room, 3 hallway, 1 laundry room, 1 playroom, 1 DS's bedroom, 4 bathroom #1, 6 master bedroom, 7 bathroom #2.

That's 38. WOW! And my house is only about 1200 square feet!

If you count outside, garage, storage room, that takes us up to 46!

[Amylcd]

Kitchen / Dining: 7

Living Room: 4

Bathrooms : 8 (4 in each)

Bedrooms: 12 (3 in each)

Hallway: 6

Laundry room: 3

Outside: 4

Basement: 8

--------


Total : 52 (i don't think i'm missing any)

[~PurityLake~]

Originally Posted by SAHDS

How many light bulbs do you have in your house?

Side note - I'm not even talking about lamps, just lights that came with the house, hard-wired (or whatever the term is)!

Two bulbs in the bedroom light (1 is burned out).

Four total in the second bedroom in two fixtures.

5 bulbs in the bathroom medicine cabinet (only 4 sockets have bulbs in them and 1 of those is burned out) and an overhead light above the washer/dryer in the bathroom that holds two bulbs (1 is burned out).

2 bulbs in hallway light fixture (1 is burned out).

4 bulbs in dining area
3 bulbs above sink, only 2 bulbs in there though.
2 bulbs inside our front door (has 1 right now).

I light in our inside porch

So, total I could have is 25.
Total that have working light bulbs in them are 18.

And our home is only 780 sq feet.

ETA: The only lamp I have is a hanging lamp with one bulb in the living room because otherwise there is no light in that whole room. The range hood has a light, the oven has a light, and there is a small strip light under the corner of the kitchen cabinets that I almost never use because the previous owner installed it in the corner, instead of over the one short stretch of counter where I would actually need it.

[JamieCatheryn]

We have, I think, 33 bulbs in our house. We have 6-10 of them on most days for like 5 hours a day (winter). I'm happy with the light level and don't feel like they're out of control. Maybe it's more of an issue of family members turning them on but not off for many of you?