Lighting Your Home With Eco-Friendly Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs)
Over the last week or so, 6 of the 9 light bulbs in my kitchen ceiling have conveniently burnt out (as well as my pantry light!). It’s gotten quite dark in there, which has gotten me thinking about the best lights to replace those energy draining incandescent lights the builders put in when they built the place.
The great news is that energy efficient bulbs have really increased in popularity, which has not only brought down prices, but increased the options now we have available. You can now get energy efficient light bulbs in just about every shape and size. Even 3-way and dimming varieties are available.
As of now, your best option for lighting is probably CFLs or compact fluorescent lights. LEDs may replace them at the top of the eco-hierarchy, but that is still a ways down the road.
Here’s what’s so great about CFLs:
- They last 10 times longer than your average incandescent (your standard bulb).
- They use 75% less energy than that incandescent. (This is a great way to reduce your household energy use.)
- They save upwards of $30 in energy costs over the lifetime of each bulb.
When you calculate the reduction in energy consumption and the resulting reduction in polluting emissions when we all swap out a few standard bulbs for CFLs, the difference we’d make is mind blowing!
In the USA for example, if each home replaced one light bulb they’d save $600 million in energy costs per year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to what 800,000 cars produce in a year (according to the US Department of Energy). Those are no small numbers!
So the next time a bulb burns out in your house, pick up a CFL to replace it with. This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to make a real difference in your impact on the planet.
Better yet, buy the bulbs now. You can either replace your energy-draining bulbs today or have the green bulbs on hand for when they burn out.
One more thing…
I’ve heard some concern about there being mercury in CFLs and the environmental implications of this once the bulbs are disposed of. So I did a little research…
The amount of mercury in a CFL is less than the amount in your watch’s battery. So not really a big concern, although you should not just throw you old CFLs (or batteries) in the trash. Many places that sell CFLs will take them back for proper disposal. You may also be able to drop off used CFLs, and batteries, at your local fire station or the city dump.
Check in your area to find the proper disposal method. Although you’ve probably got 5 years before you’ll need to worry about that!
Some Other Eco-Friendly Lighting Options
If you want to go all out, power your lights and your house using solar or wind power. You can also get solar tube lighting which ingeniously brings bright, beautiful sunshine from a covered hole in your roof to pretty much any room in the house. There like super cool, super bright skylights.
But for today, your simplest way to make a difference is to buy a couple packs of energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs and swap them with the light bulbs you use most often.
