The incandescent light bult will be phased off the U.S. market beginning in 2012 through 2014 under the new energy law approved by Congress. This new energy-efficient light souce uses 75% less energy and lasts 5 years instead of a few months.
Getting started...
• Buy bulbs with the “Energy Star” endorsement.
• Be sure to get dimmable CFL’s if you have dimmers.
• They come in spiral, globe, flood and outdoor varieties.
• They come in a variety of brightness: soft or warm white vs bright white, daylight or natural.
• Recognize that CFL’s take longer to come to full strength than incandescent bulbs.
• Because of small amounts of mercury, CFL’s should be recycled. As a last resort, seal the bulbs in two plastic bags before putting them in the trash.
What’s the impact? Although CFL’s cost about 6 times more than incandescents...
• They use 75% less energy and last 5 years instead of a few months.
• One bulb will save about $5 a year in electricity costs over a regular bulb.
• A household that invested $90 in changing 30 fixtures to CFLs would save $440 to $1,500 over the 5-year life of the bulbs.
• CFL bulbs produce 70% less heat than incandescent bulbs.
• If each household in the US exchanged just one incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb, we would save a total of $526 million AND reduce the amount of carbon dioxide gas in the air by 8.9 billion pounds in just one year.
• If every American household replaced their 5 most frequently used lights with CFL bulbs, we would prevent the release of greenhouse gases equal to the emissions of 8 million cars.
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