This is incorrect, it doesn't save electricity it actually waste it in this application...
An incandescent is about 95% efficient at making heat... A CFL is about 20% efficient at making heat...
Thus a 13 Watt CFL is equivalent to a 2.6 Watt heater, or a 3 Watt incandescent bulb... A 3 Watt incandescent bulb (or about 7 or 8 mini x-mas tree lights) would be over four times efficient in this case and produce the same amount of heat...
The cooler is fairly thick, so the room temp doesn't really affect the inside temp. Thank you
The room temp will make a difference and effect the inside temp, the laws of physics don't' change...
All things the same the light inside always produces the same amount of heat, and the 'insulation' between the inside of the cooler and outside is the same... The only variable that can change is the thermal lose between the inside and outside due to the ambient temp outside...
Lets say you have a room at 70° and the incubator is running at 100° this 30° boost in temp is because the heat given off by the light overpowers the thermal lose to the outside and nets you 30°...
If the room temp raises to 80° the light inside is not all the sudden going to cool down, it's going to produce the same amount of heat, but the thermal lose is now going to be less due to the higher outside temps, thus you will likely see a temp net gain in excess of 30° between the outside and inside, the inside will probably be in or about the 112° range in this case...
The same is true in reverse... If the room temp drops to 60° the thermal lose to the outside is greater, thus the inside of the incubator will not see the same 30° boost, and inside temp will likely be about 88°...
To compensate for this you either have to adjust the heat given off by the light or adjust the thermal lose, most people that build these static incubators choose to adjust the thermal lose by punching more or less holes in the side of the cooler or they use a dimmer to adjust the heat output, in both cases another variable needs to change when the outside temp changes if the temp inside is to be held consistent...
These types of incubators do work if the balance is found and kept consistent, they offer little room for change in ambient temp though...
These are not for me when for a few dollars more you can make it thermostatically controlled, and much more reliable, but that doesn't mean it isn't satisfactory for others like yourself...
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