Save Money, Reduce Pollution, Make Al Gore Jump for Joy
The Sentinel's guide to ditching incandescent bulbs for fluorescent
Adrianne Dues
Issue date: 5/29/07 Section: News
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Nothing is worse than handing your hard-earned cash over American Electric Power $80.00 every month, as you sit in the fetal position crying at the very idea of having to stay home Friday night. So how can you save some money on electric bills and also cut down on pollution, without doing anything illegal? By replacing standard incandescent bulbs with energy-saving compact florescent light bulbs, also known as CFLs.
The average American household has between fifteen to thirty standard incandescent bulbs, which don't exactly keep the electric bill from going through the roof. If these same American households replaced just incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb, it would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions equivalent to the emissions of 800,000 cars.
These energy-saving beauties use at least two-thirds less energy than standard incandescent bulbs; CLFs also provide the same amount of light, and last an estimated thirteen times longer.
CFL bulbs will also give you between 8,000-10,000 hours of light, as opposed to the 1,000 hours of light produced by a standard bulb. Compared to incandescent bulbs, one CFL bulb releases 1,300 fewer pounds of carbon dioxide and 20 fewer pounds of sulfur dioxide into our atmosphere. Even if you purchase these bulbs just to save money for happy hour, you are helping your karma by caring for the environment.
If you really want those tree-hugging hippies to do a flip, you could even re-stock your whole house or apartment with CFL bulbs and reduce your energy needs for lighting by 66%-75%. This means you will be able to save $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb's lifetime. I'll do the math for you: that is at least three cases of Nati, three handles of Popolov Vodka, or for those of you with more expensive tastes, two drinks at BOMA.
So what's the difference in how the bulbs work? Why are they more efficient than fluorescent bulbs? (Warning: here comes the technical part)
Incandescent bulbs make light by passing electricity through a small wire, allowing the wire to grow hot, and producing light. Yet the unfortunate consequence is the creation of a veritable energy monster. An estimated 90% of the energy used by an incandescent bulb is spent producing heat, not light. With all this heat production to generate just one bulb, energy consumption is massive.
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