2/18    Back in 2000 I bought a few 23W energy efficient bulbs that
        output 100W, and a few 16W bulbs that output 60W. The
        (output/energy used) ratio was about 4. Today I bought a
        few more bulbs from Walmart...  7W bulbs that output 40W,
        which has the (output/energy used) ratio of over 5.
        Are new bulbs getting more and more efficient?
        \_ no.
        \_ The "equivalent to XX watts" is an estimate by correlating an
           average N watt incandescent bulb to the number of lumens it outputs.
           It's mostly just rounding error, I'd guess.  It would be nice if
           they'd start putting lumens in bigger numbers, but I guess we've
           got as much chance of switching to that as switching to m and km.
        \_ is your understanding of these bulbs that they put out more
           energy than they take in? please give me the address of the magical
           unicorn that gave these to you. -ali.
           \_ Holy cow. You are such a pedantic prick. And your tone makes
              you sound like a wanna be smart ass and above all else,
              a big jerk. Please work on your tone and personality. You
              still haven't gotten a PhD not because you're not smart,
              but because people don't like to work with fucking pricks.
              \_ obGoogle, looks like he graduated.
           \_ I'm the op and the answer is, obviously, no. You put in X,
              you get out X. The problem with regular incandescent bulbs
              is that much of the X is useless to you. I define
              usefulness as viewable spectrum, and uselessness as heat,
              UV, etc. Energy efficient bulbs have higher usefulness
              over uselessness ratio.
           \_ Duh, they're from the North Pole.  Everyone knows unicorns have
              nothing to do with infinite energy.  It's an elf thing.
        \_ Probably.  When we switch to LED bulbs the multiple will be even
           better.  All this shows you is how amazingly inefficient
           incandescent bulbs are in producing usable light.
           \_ do LEDs have the obnoxious flicker or any other negatives you
              get from fluorescents?