[Announce] Day 3: How many light bulbs does it take to change the world?

[Robert Waldrop]

Day 3: Replace your incandescent bulbs with 
compact fluorescent bulbs.

How many light bulbs does it take to change the 
world?

The US government's Energy Star program says that 
if every household in the nation replaced ONE 
incandescent light with a compact fluorescent 
(hereafter "CFs") bulb, it would prevent enough 
pollution to equal removing one MILLION 
automobiles from the roads.

CFs use 66% less energy than standard 
incandescents, and last as much as ten times 
longer. But they give as much light as 
incandescents.  (I have compact fluorescent bulbs 
that I installed in the year 2000 that are still 
working.)

CFs are cool to the touch, because they are not 
wasting energy making heat.

Light energy is measured in "lumens", and the 
package of the CF bulb will say how many lumens it 
produces.  A 100 watt incandescent is generally 
about 1600 lumens.  A 60 watt incandescent is 
about 800 watts.  A CF bulb that produces 1600 
lumens, the equibalent of a 100 watt bulb, will 
only burn about 22-25 Watts of electricity (the 
100 watt incandescent is burning 100 watts). So 
figure a 75% reduction in energy use for lighting 
when you switch to CF bulbs.

You can get a variety of shades of white in the 
light produced by CFs:

Warm white -- 2700 Kelvin) very similar to 
incandescent bulb light,
Soft white -- 3500 K, yellowish-white light,
Cool white -- 4100 K, more pure white
Daylight -- 6400 K, slightly bluish-white

The Kelvin scale is used to describe the colors of 
light.  The higher the number, the "cooler" the 
light (that is, the more it is shaded with blue).

(Source: Wikipedia)

The bulbs do contain a minute amount of mercury, 
but they also reduce the amount of mercury emitted 
into the atmosphere by coal generating plants.  I 
have had a few CFs go out on me, I took those with 
me on my regular trip to the Oklahoma City 
Hazardous Waste collection center and they 
accepted them.

If you have no experience with CFs, I suggest that 
you buy a variety of bulbs with different color 
shades to their lights, and decide what works best 
for you.  Generally I like the small "spiral" 
bulbs that have a blue-ish white light, but in my 
office, I have a brighter, more yellow light.

If you don't find something you like at a local 
store, there is a very large array of CFs lights 
available on the internet, including colors (red, 
green, pink, yellow) and black-lights.

People sometimes say, "Don't use them in places 
where you turn the light on and off a lot, such as 
your closets."  We use them everywhere, however, 
including our closets, and they work just fine. 
We also use them outside, although there is one 
caveat about that: In cold weather they take 
longer to warm up.

How many light bulbs does it take to change your 
world?

Bob Waldrop
www.energyconservationinfo.org
www.oklahomafood.coop
www.bettertimesinfo.org