Every Friday, Lynda Steele dips into the viewer mailbag to answer your questions. This week, Steele on Your Side investigates bulb burnout and combining Aeroplan points.
CFL bulb burnout
Sylvain wrote us to ask about the lifespan of compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs. He bought bulbs that claimed to last 12 years, but he says they burnt out in a couple of years.
CFL bulbs are generally rated to last from 6,000 to 15,000 hours, with most manufacturers rating the average lifespan at 10,000 hours. If a bulb is used for five hours a day, that equals four to eight years of use.
But there are some behaviours that can be CFL bulb killers. Tests have found the bulbs wear out much faster if turned off and on regularly and dimmer switches can suck the life out of a CFL bulb as well. If you plan to use the bulb with a dimmer switch, you can purchase CFLs specifically designed for that.
Combining Aeroplan points
Hugh wrote to ask why Aeroplan won't let its customers accumulate points as a husband/wife team or a family.
Aeroplan says its accounts need to be individual because they're used to track flight activities for qualification in Air Canada's Altitude program.
However, if you want to pool Aeroplan miles into one family account, you can do so by getting an Aeroplan-affiliated credit card and adding a supplementary card to the account. That would allow members of a family to pool miles earned through the credit card into one Aeroplan account.
