Save The Planet, Change Your Light Bulbs
Friday, December 31st, 2010Since the introduction in 1879 of a practical light bulb by Thomas Edison, incandescent light bulbs have been the mainstay of our home lighting. They come in many shapes and sizes for a seemingly unlimited range of uses from lighting your pool to giving doctors enough light to perform surgery. The light bulb is a great invention, but it works by using a great deal of energy to cause a filament to glow bright enough to light a room. It creates energy loss by getting very hot. Actually in an enclosed small room, a 100 watt incandescent bulb, which puts out 100 watts of energy, can raise the temperature by 11 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that the incandescent bulbs you may use in your home can add significantly to your electric bill each year. Because of this, even more CO2 is pumped into the air from coal run electric plants each year; further heating up our planet. Multiply this by the millions of homes in the US, not to mention the world and you can begin to understand the scope of the problem.
How can we cut this wasted energy usage by up to 75%?
Do we have to drastically change the way we live? Do we need to build new homes?
Do we have to go without light? The answer is a resounding “NO!”
Simply switch to energy efficient light bulbs. CFLs or Compact Fluorescent Lamps were introduced in mass this past decade, but this technology has been around for over a century. Standard fluorescent lights work by causing gas to glow inside a tube. This glowing gas gives us light. In CFls, the tubes are spiraled or twisted to give more light in a smaller space rather than a long tube. There are some huge advantages in using Compact Fluorescent Lamps over incandescent. They last up to 9 times longer and use a quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs. In fact, CFLs will last around 4.5 years compared to the average 5.5 month of incandescent bulbs. They are very bright too and produce 90% less heat. a 25 watt CFL will put out as much light as a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Yes, CFLs cost a little more to buy initially, but if they last 9 times longer, you actually save money and your light bill is cut dramatically. Also the more people all over the world buy these lights, the lower the price will go.
Nobody is saying that you electric bill will go down to zero, but switching to energy efficient light bulbs will have a cost reducing effect on your energy costs for your home. An easy way to switch is to buy a few CFLs each month and gradually change out bulbs over the year. It is recommended however to replace all of your light bulbs at once to really see the difference in cost right away. Combine this with using energy efficient appliances, better insulation and windows and your electric bill, not to mention your carbon footprint will be lowered.
Curt Gutierrez, co-founder of Terrabound Solutions specializes in outdoor site furnishings for parks, recreation and residential settings from picnic tables, park benches to adirondack furniture and adirondack chairs. Our products have an eco-friendly emplasis!