It’s as easy as changing a light bulb
What can you do that will reduce your energy consumption, help cut back on cooling costs, reduce green house gases and cut back on packing and landfill waste? It turns out that it is as easy as changing a lightbulb.
You can switch your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL). According to the the Energy Star website run by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, CFLs used 75 less energy and last 10 times longer than standard incandescent bulbs. Using CFLs can make a big dent in saving energy costs and preventing greenhouse gases.
“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.” (1)
We’ve replaced our incandescent bulbs with CFLs. The choice is not perfect - CFLs contain some mercury. The amount is suppose to be small and has been reduced since CFLs first came out. The key factor is that incandescent bulbs use more energy. Most energy is still produced by coal-power plants which are the primary source of mercury polution.(2) Our current ecological system is quite complex. The choices we make can involve a compromise or lesser evil. I’m sure there will be better choices in the future. Look for choices that don’t contain mercury or other toxins to start to show up. LED light bulbs will be seen more and more. Expect LED lights to last longer and to use less energy than CFLs. Plus they don’t have any mercury in them. For now I choose CFLs.
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- (1) Energy Star
- (2) Department of Environmental Quallity, Michigan: Why use CFLs?
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