Be The ChangeReplacing five light bulbs with CFLs, aka Compact Flourescent Light Bulbs, will save you about $350 in bulbs and electricity in the first year alone, and will also keep lots of extra carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), mercury and dust out of the atmosphere.
Consider this: If every American swapped just ONE bulb for an ENERGY STAR labeled CFL, it would collectively save more than $8 billion in energy costs, prevent burning 30 billion pounds of coal, and remove 2 million cars worth of greenhouse gas emissions from our atmosphere.
- TIME Less time at the store and on ladders — CFLs last ten times longer than an ordinary incandescent so you’ll save time buying bulbs and fiddling with those hard to reach places. Save on AC — 10% of the electricity that goes into incandescent bulbs is converted into light; the other 90% is wasted as heat. That’s heat that will raise your AC bill.
- MONEY 20% of home energy goes into lighting — the more incandescents you replace, the more money you’ll save. Any bulbs you have running through the evening should definitely be CFLs. By replacing the light bulbs that you use the most, you‘ll save more than $60 per year/per bulb. If you couple that with the significant savings on the environment we’ll all see when everyone does their part, it's a great return on your investment—for yourself and for future generations.
- HEALTH 50% of electricity is made from coal—Generating electric power produces more pollution than any other single industry in the United States. Recent (2002) data [http://www.powerscorecard.org/elec_env.cfm] shows the U.S. electricity industry was responsible for:
- 63% of sulfur dioxide emissions that contribute to acid rain
- 22% of NOx emissions that contribute to urban smog
- 39% of carbon emissions that contribute to global climate change
- 33% of mercury emissions that pose significant health risks.
- SAFETY Safer for kids - Incandescents get so hot they can burn a child’s fingers or burn a house down if paper lands on them. CFLS last ten times longer that ordinary bulbs.
[sidebar] CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 5 milligrams (roughly equivalent to the tip of a ball-point pen). An incandescent bulb puts much more mercury into the air because of all the coal that is burned to light it. Mercury is an essential, irreplaceable element in CFLs and is what allows the bulb to be an efficient light source. By comparison, older home thermometers contain 500 milligrams of mercury and many manual thermostats contain up to 3000 milligrams. It would take between 100 and 600 CFLs to equal those amounts. Contrary to popular assumption, there are safe ways to dispose of CFLs so that the mercury content is recycled. [sidebar]
Tips on buying CFLs
There are much better CFLs available on the market today than there were just a few years ago. They’ve been improved to provide a warmer, rosier light and some are even dimmable. There are also a bunch of cheap knock-offs on the market that don’t last as long and have the harsh bluer light that turned people off when they first came out. You can avoid these cheap knock-offs if you follow some basic guidelines while shopping for bulbs:
- Make sure the CFL matches your fixture by size and capability. If your fixture is dimmable, 3-way, or recessed, make sure it's labeled accordingly on the package.
- For warmer lighting, make sure it has a listed color temperature of under 3000K.
- The ENERGY STAR label is a good indicator of quality.
- Remember that CFLs use about a quarter of the wattage to produce the same light as an incandescent bulb. Therefore, if you are going to replace a 60-Watt incandescent, purchase a 15-Watt CFL; a 100-Watt incandescent can be replaced with a 25 Watt CFL.
Many “green-conscious” cities are giving away CFLs as an incentive, check your local utility and city government for offers of free or reduced-price CFLs.
If you can, buy CFLs locally while you are doing other errands. Making a special trip to buy CFLs would be a wacky contradiction to the principles of sustainability. If you don’t have the selection you need locally, here are some websites with a large assortment, volume discounts and a color temperature listing for every bulb they carry:
Bulbs.com
1000bulbs.com
How to make it fun
Divide up the tasks, compare notes and make it a group project.
- Check out how your city and state ranks in CFL sales per capita at 18seconds.org.
- Have each family in the group report back with a list of incandescent light bulbs they could replace with CFLs. It is important to note incandescent wattage, desired color temperature (warm or daylight), dimming, 3 way, or reflector (for recessed lighting), outside use. Click here for a handy CFL shopping list.
Multiply the number of bulbs by $60 and you’ll get a sense of how much you could save per year by switching to CFLs. If you have people in the group who want to know precisely how much each bulb will save and how quickly the initial cost will be paid back in energy savings, we recommend using the CFL calculator from Energy Star.
- Send out scouts to buy a bunch of different brands, wattages, and color temperatures. Try them out and compare notes. Check your local utility or government agency for free samples.
- You might consider a consolidated purchase with a volume discount from your locally owned hardware store or one of websites listed above.
- Have the most computer-literate person in your group calculate the total savings of the group in dollars, CO2, and cars taken off the road using the CFL calculator from Energy Star.
- Visit OneBillionBulbs.com to register your group’s part in changing the world “one bulb at a time”. Write reviews on the site about the bulbs you bought so others can benefit from your experience.
>> Link from $350 in bulbs and electricity
See CFL savings.xls
If this looks like just one more list of to do's—then STOP! How you go about being sustainable is MORE important than you might imagine. We can't create a sustainable world from overextended lives.
Don't proceed until you read
"Guiding Principles for Lasting Change"
and
"Why Be Sustainable?"
The 12 steps are organized so that the things that take the least amount of time and money come first. Most items on the list will actually save you money. Many will also save you time.
In all the steps, we ask you to spend more time connecting with neighbors. Connecting with your neighbors is the only way to avoid getting overwhelmed.
A sustainable world is only possible within a deeply connected community — It's that fundamental.
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