Easy Peasy Tip: Replace One Light Bulb
By tinychoices | August 4, 2007
Replace one incandescent light bulb in your home with an energy-efficient compact flourescent bulb:
If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year… and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.
And that’s just from us all replacing one single bulb! Pretty sweet!
These twirly-swirly CF bulbs are now available for purchase nearly everywhere- check your local hardware store, grocery store, or supermarket (and if they don’t yet stock the bulbs, ask them to start). If all else fails, the big box stores sell them — Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowes… but please, shop local first.
Further Reading:
- Environmental Defense on “How to pick a better bulb“
- Umbra on: Tossing your old light bulbs: “We should be thoughtful about producing innocent trash, but not think so hard that we stop ourselves from advancing climate solutions.”
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Topics: Easy Peasy Tips | 17 Comments »
17 Comments
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I heard on the local news that if everyone in my county installed just one CF we could shut down a coal burning power plant! I’m trying to compensate for everyone else, apparently, as all of our bulbs are CF’s!
what a great metric to have on the local news! when you put it like that it really seems like a no-brainer decision.
I love stats like that! It makes it seem like all things eco are really possible.
The bare-swirly ones are very bright to look and they hurt my eyes. But I found a different style CF here: OSRAM Dulux Superstar, or Philips GLS. They have a white bulb shaped glass shield around, the shape is like the following one:
http://www.thelightbulb.co.uk/product/detail.php?id=522&green=1#zoom
Last May I got them for £2 ($4) each, so bought 10 of them for my parents’ new house. They are warm white, so the colour of light is pretty nice. I have two of them here at my home.
Last week we got another 10 for my in-laws’ house, but this time ordinary ones at £1 each!.. Sweet! Good to know that 3 families are spending 5 times less energy for lighting!.. ;-)
that’s super, Koray! I found some bulbs like that at IKEA, too - they’re pretty affordable. Plus IKEA will take back the used bulbs for recycling.
This post reminded me to FINALLY replace my back porch bulb with a CF bulb. I only use about 4 lights in the house heavily, and I’m replacing them with CFs as they go out.
all of my lamps use the enormous lightbulbs from the 50s, as they are from my grandma. do they make cf bulbs that big? I have to admit, I really can’t stand the light from them, but if just changing one lamp over makes a difference, I’ll absolutely do it.
Is the actual size of your lightbulbs larger? Or are you talking about wattage? This site seems to sell an awful lot of bulbs, hopefully you can see if what you need is produced: http://www.environmentallights.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1301&gclid=CMmMjaWe4o0CFRHzPgodzEBDyA
You know, the first time I put in CF bulbs I actually ended up removing them, because I didn’t like the light quality at all. When I realized that I really needed to start using them and put a few back in I was not bothered by the light in the least- in fact I don’t even notice the difference anymore at all.
Ya know, I keep trying to cross over to CF, and have several rooms in my house (basement and office) 90% switched over, but the honest truth is I hate them. I have heard people saying they have found ones that cast a light that is nice, warm, etc, but I have yet to come across those. The office one doesn’t bother me much since if I am in there I am usually staring at an LCD screen most of the time so I don’t notice the foul light. The basement I tend to not stay in so much so its not a problem.
I did use a Full Spectrum lamp (don’t know if that counts as any type of fluorescent!) for a long time at the office to compensate for poor daylight and while it was also ugly light, it did help keep the fluorescent drab away. Of course, I think that light is an energy hog, so doesn’t fit here.
If anyone has suggestions for specific bulbs to try please let me know! I am certainly in favor of doing the right choice environmentally, but in this case, not with the result of detesting the atmosphere of my home. A cranky me is worse for the world around me than extra wattage!
Chris
oh, and hi!
have you tried LED lights? they’re really expensive, but if you wanted to give it a go please let us know how they work out! I read a review of the EarthLED last week and they sound great.
oh, and hi!
You should definitely give LEDs a whirl. As Karina said, they are pricey but I think they’d fill the void that you’re feeling with CFs. The first time I tried to install CFs I just had to take them out, the light was so horrid. But when I tried them again it was totally fine (and they were the same bulbs, go figure). I have read that different brands show different colors, so try some of the pricier brands and see if you like them better.
And, hi there! What a lovely treat that you’re out there, reading along!
Hey, just found this link for you: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagid=608
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