"Energy Saving" Lightbulbs...

...will they actually save you $$$ on your electric bill for their relatively higher cost, or are they just a sham targeted at people who're "Environmentally Conscious" and want to think they're saving the world by using these things?

As you can probably imagine, I'm thinking about these myself, but...$20 for a lightbulb? And it supposedly lasts for 8 years...? Can anyone confirm any of these claims?

Its just a fad. Every product under the sun now is trying to claim its "green" now. There's only one kind of green they really care about though...

They need a lot less power and do last a lot longer, but they won't save you much money in the long run, since they are so expensive. The "green" part is that they "save" energy, so on a large scale, say if everyone replaced every normal lightbulb with those lightbulbs there'd be a lot of energy saved, so less polution from the powerplants. So in that sense, they really are "green", but don't expect to notice a change in your wallet.

CFL lightbulbs are energy saving, but they're not good for the environment since they contain mercury.  The real "green" lightbulbs are LED bulbs which are still way too expensive for consumer use, but once they come down in price, they should completely replace both incandescent and CFLs since they last much longer and use less juice.

I don't believe in the green-frenzied (marketing) movement, but I have a couple in my room. Radio personalty Clark Howard brought the immense savings to my attention -- much lesser electricity usage and they last for like five years.

Sure, they're probably seven times the price of an incandescent bulb (at around $5/ea.), but if Clark endorses it, it has to be a huge saver.

I don't know where you're shopping, but $20 is way too much. Maybe that's a special kind of light, like a dimmer, or a very high-output bulb?

Edit: There's actually a way to calculate your savings. Let's say you're using a 75W light bulb. The CFL equivalent would probably be around 15W, so you're saving 60 watts by switching. Then figure out how many hours per day the bulb is turned on. If it's on for 8 hours per day, you save 8 * 60 = 480 watt-hours per day, or about half a kilowatt-hour. If you pay 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, that means you save five cents per day, or about $15 per year. If it's only on one hour per day, you save 1/8 as much, or just under $2 per year.

The upshot is that you want to replace only commonly-used or difficult-to-change lightbulbs with CFLs. If you have a light in your closet that you turn on for five minutes once a week, don't bother, unless for some reason it's a huge pain to change, in which case you should install a CFL just so that you don't have to change it a lot.

All this is, of course, contingent on your ability to find one for a reasonable price, closer to $5 than $20. If you have a Wal-Mart nearby, they'd be a good bet. Their web site lists a 12-pack for $20.

Caveat: I once had one go out after a few months. Most are warrantied, so save the original packaging and your receipt, just in case.

The only problem I've had with CFLs is that they sometimes don't fit into openings originally designed for incandescent bulbs. They always go into the old incandescent sockets but you might have to remove pieces, such as on fan lights. The only thing that has a significant effect on my energy bill is how often I run the air conditioner; I buy the CFLs because I don't have to worry about changing them for many years.

Until they produce a fluorescent (or other energy-saving) bulb that can come close to the spectrum produced by an incandescent bulb, there will be a place for incandescents in my life.  Thankfully, I don't live in California, so my ability to choose them is not being threatened.

im just waiting for the price of surgical sonar implants to come down.

Running the A/C is the hugest electricity suck. In wintertime my bill is like $30-$35 a month. Last summer it was up to $140 a month with the A/C at 69 (the bunnies shed like hell if its too warm). This past spring we bought a $40 tower fan and ran it in conjunction with the A/C at 73. Our highest bill this summer was August at $102, so the fan nearly paid for itself in one billing cycle.

note on warrantied bulbs,, have you ever seen a cashiers receipt that was still readable after a few years? unless you want to start keeping them in plastic sleeves like trading cards...

This.  Anyone who saw the Mythbusters episode on whether or not it's cheaper to leave the lights on or turn them off knows what we're talking about.  Grant rigged an automatic switch that turned on and off 6 different light bulbs at some interval and left it going for a good amount of time.  When they were finally done the only one still operating was the LED bulb.  It runs off of <1 watt of energy and is a natural white light. 

As soon as they're commercially available (and affordable) I'm re-doing my entire house.

Couldn't agree more... things like eSurance claiming they've saved thousands of trees because of online documentation makes me chuckle. Like I'm supposed to take that into consideration when choosing an insurance company or making each and ever decision.

Right on about LEDs and that those are also another expensive initial cost that will likely save you lots of time, money and hassle in the long run. LEDs have penetrated the market, though you may have to go looking for them. For example LED Christmas lights have debuted in the last few years though they don't exactly fly off the shelf because at about 100 lights, they cost about ten times the price of a box of a 1,000 (using hyperbole, but stick with me here).

As far as marketing LEDs, it's nil (probably because its a) can't sell affordability, b) too efficient for the bulb sellers!?).

Regarding LED bulbs, this was in the latest Scientific American:

"LED versions of 60-watt incandescent bulbs can cost around $100. Engineers at Purdue University report a way to make cheaper blue LEDs, which are needed to generate white light. Conventionally, such LEDs require gallium nitride to be placed on a substrate of sapphire, with a separate reflector to direct the light. In the July 14 Applied Physics Letters, the researchers describe making LEDs on silicon with a built-in reflective layer, which reduces cost; with mass manufacturing, affordable LED lamps could appear in two years, they predict."