Apocalyptics Anonymous

Apocalyptics Anonymous

Lighting

There has been a lot of advertisements lately pushing folks to replace their old incandescant lights with the new spiral, compact flourescent bulbs. Let me tell you why its a good idea:

Energy Star Qualified lighting uses 75% less Energy than a standard incandescent bulb, and the CFL lasts 10 times longer.

So there are several reasons it saves you money and it saves the environment:
1. It uses less electricity to produce the same amount of light as the old incandescent models
2. You don't need to replace it as often, which means it reduces solid waste for landfills.
3. It produces 75 percent less heat than a standard bulb meaning that you have fewer heat related fire hazards so there is increased safety factor.

In my house I use 40 Watt Bulbs. I replaced them with their CFL counterparts. The Standard Bulbs used 40 watts of energy. The new CFL Bulbs use between 9-13 Watts, which averages out to 11 watts. So I am saving about 29 watts per bulb. When I multiply that times 10, for I am saving 290 Watts on the whole. According to a website: Alliance to Save Energy, These are the calculations for different Lightbulb Wattages.
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A Standard 40 Watt Incandescent Light Bulb produces 450 Lumens {visible light units} and its Compact Flourescent Light [CFL} uses only 9-13 watts in order to produce the same amount of light {lumens}.

A Standard 60 Watt Light produces 800 Lumens, and its CFL equivalent uses 13-15 Watts in order to produce the same amount of light.

A Standard 75 Watt light produces 1,100 Lumens, and its CFL Equivalent uses only 18-25 Watts.

A Standard 100 Watt Light produces 1,600 Lumens and its CFL Equivalent uses only 23-30 Watts.

A Standard 150 Watt light produces 2,600 Lumens, and its CFL Equivalent uses only 30-52 Watts.

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In addition to all of this, I have discovered that there are now Christmas Lights that use 90 Percent Less Energy. I bought mine at a local Ace Hardware Store. Instead of regular little Incandescent Bulbs, these are LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes by a brand called LEDSERIES.

These LED Icicle Lights are rated for Indoor and Outdoor Use with a 25,000 Hour average light bulb life.

Cool to touch when lit {added safety feature, many fires have been started by over heated holiday Lights}

The box indicates up to 90 percent savings on energy costs.

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They Average out costs of different lights on the back of the Box:

Energy Savings Comparison: 45 Days average usage {6 hrs per day} cost of electricity at .10 cents per Kilowatt Hour.

600 C-7 Lights cost 81.00$ to run.

600 mini-lights cost 6.61$ to run.

[AND] 600 LED lights cost 1.30$ to run

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Here is a link to a company that specializes in LED products, Forever LED.

On of the reasons I never got that excited about decorating the outside of my home for the holidays was the usage of electricity. Heating costs are going up as well, and so there is the concern for the environment as well as personal costs for heating the home. With this technology, I can participate in this tradition, and not feel like I am Burning down the entire Amazon Forest to celebrate the holidays.

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Anyhow back to regular lighting: If Every American home were to exchange 5 high use incandescent bulbs for their CFL equivalent, the average household would save 60$ a year in energy costs on their end, but also Prevent emissions of Green House Gases that would be equivalent to 800,000. Cars.

{WOW} Just from changing out light bulbs. Most people have more than 5 lights in their house. Imagine if they changed them all?

I think it would be cool to do an adopt a family type program where we can buy and exchange these lights in poorer house holds and schools over the holidays. I mean in the long run this would be a different way of "Giving the Gift of Life."

I could even see some Churches doing this, and calling it "Let there be Light." How cool and cheesey is that?