“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.”
For each and every Compact Fluorescent bulb you buy you’ll save at least $30 over the life span of the bulb.
They use 75% less energy - and last 10 times longer.
The basic incandescent light bulb is something that is truly better defined as a heat source. When they are turned on electricity is passed through the filament, which in turns gets hot and glows as a side effect. Less than 3% of the input energy is converted into usable light. Additionally, that heat must be dealt with in the summer with increased air conditioning!
A month ago I made the switch in my home when It started to seem
like I was replacing a light bulb every few days. I made a list of all
the light bulbs in the house that I use more than about 4 hours a day,
give or take a little bit. I replaced all of them with CF bulbs.
The key here is to get good (aka - more expensive) bulbs and watch for
sales, I managed to get a great deal on CF Bulbs at Home Depot, $0.99
per bulb - and they were a name brand Energy Star bulb - N:Vision.
Popular Mechanics also rated this manufacturer as the one of the best CF lights you can buy (May 07).
The previous ones I’d gotten in the ‘Great Value’ box from Walmart were
anything but. They took too long to turn on and the color was bad.
Remember that most CF bulbs do not work with dimmers - they’ll buzz pretty loud and if you read the package it’ll claim a bunch of other things that can happen. Most don’t work when it gets below freezing either - so in the winter if it gets below freezing I’d avoid putting these outside!
Final note - turn off the lights in rooms you aren’t in!