July 6, 2008

One of the first things we can do to reduce our own personal effect on climate change is to change the incandescent light bulbs in our homes to CFLs (or compact fluorescent lights.) CFLs use 75% less energy than the formerly popular incandescent bulbs and can save as much as $30 per bulb over its lifetime on your electric bill.

As per the United States government's Energy Star site:

"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, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars."

Hard to find a simpler action that has a bigger impact on reducing greenhouse gases than that!

However, there are a few downsides to using CFLs. For instance, some bulbs take a minute or two to warm up and their light output is not as immediate as incandescent bulbs. (Solution: Doh! Wait for them to warm up!) And there is concern about how to dispose of used CFLs properly as they do contain small amounts of mercury that can be released when broken. It can be argued that simply using them over incandescent bulbs reduces larger amounts of mercury in our atmosphere as less coal is burned (a major source of mercury poison in our environment) as the result of the reduced energy need. Whatever the argument, there is a growing need for a nationwide recycling program for these lights and there is some indication that the Environmental Protection Agency is working to address this by asking retailers who sell them to offer recycling programs. As far as I know, IKEA is the only retailer to comply. I am hopeful that the EPA will be a bit more pro-active in the next few years on this issue.

Rather than waiting for those who govern us to act, it wouldn't hurt if we each approached our local government agencies and asked if there was a program set up to safely recycle these bulbs. If there is not, they would then know that there was concern out there among their constituency about this. Don't ask them just once either. Schedule a call to your county and/or state recycling program about once a quarter to ask them about their actions in this regard. You can always ask them what YOU can do to help them address this too.

Some countries are imposing a ban on incandescent light bulb use. Australia, and other EU members are setting deadlines for the phaseout of this older type of light bulb. I would be very surprised if the United States did not follow suit in the next few years. Again, calling or writing your government representatives will give them an idea how many are concerned about this and are expecting action to be taken.

Where can you buy these bulbs? I have found them locally at a variety of hardware and grocery stores. Even Wal-Mart is now offering these as well - can't get more mainstream than that! Personally, I have found that the best price and the best selection of types of bulbs is at our local Lowe's. I buy both the standard looking CFL and the small round ones for our bathroom light fixture.

Some interesting links for more information:

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls

http://banthebulb.org/

http://www.onebillionbulbs.com/

Be sure to check out the video above too! It is one of my all-time favorites! If you do have any additional thoughts, links, videos, etc., I would appreciate your contribution!

Peace.

Ω

July 1, 2008. The Green Road

Copyright © 2008 Monica Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.