The price of a cheap energy efficient light
bulb is usually about ten times higher than an ordinary light
bulb. If you use them correctly they will last about ten times
longer making the price the same. The power consumption on the
other hand is only about 25-35% compared to standard incandescent
light bulbs. As the price of the bulb is practically the same, all
the energy saved will save you money. Even if you bought a really
expensive model, you would still end up saving money.
A compact fluorescent light bulb lasts
about 10,000 hours. Let's say you replace one standard 60W light
bulb with a 15W energy efficient light bulb. This way you will
save 0.045 kWh's of electricity per hour (60W-15W =
45W = 0.045kW). So
in the life time of the energy efficient light bulb you will save
450 kWh's of energy. If you pay $0.083 per KWH (average) that
makes a total saving of $37! Not bad for replacing one light bulb.
Of course to get that kind of a saving the
energy efficient light bulb must really last for the expected
10,000 hours. But even if you only got 5,000 hours, that would
still save you enough money to buy a new one. Below I will give
some guidelines on how to use and handle energy efficient light
bulbs so that they will last as long as possible.
- If every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb
with an ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulb
(CFL), it would prevent enough pollution to equal removing one
million cars from the road. Source: www.energystar.gov
- With normal use of four hours a day, a compact
fluorescent light bulb will last for years and use only a
fraction of the energy (10,000 hours / 4 hours per day = 2500
days = 6.8 years)
Let's do a simple
calculation
In 2001 there were 7.1 million households in New
York. If each had replaced one bulb as stated above, the
maximum saving in a year would be: 387 kwh's. This assumes
that the bulb was left on 365 days 24 hours a day.
Remember, this is done for ease of calculating. We would
assume that the bulb would not be left on but rather many bulbs
would be used and the cumulative hours of all the bulbs will add
up to or exceed this number.
This adds up to a savings of 2.75 billion
kwh's.
How many wind
turbines are needed to produce this many
kwh's?
If a 1500MW tower produces 3,942,000 kwh's at a
30% efficiency rate (Industry Numbers), it will take 697 1.5mw
wind turbines to produce this electricity. Let's assume
that lights are on 25% of a day. That would mean, if 4
light bulbs were changed to more energy efficient bulbs in every
household, we would reduce our need for electricity equal to 697
wind turbines!
Changing the world starts with simple actions. When you
replace light bulbs or entire light fixtures in your home with
ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR, you help preserve energy
resources and contribute to a cleaner environment while saving
money and time buying and changing lights in your home.
ENERGY STAR qualified lighting provides bright, warm light
while it requires 2/3 less energy than standard lighting,
generates 70% less heat, and lasts up to 10 times longer. ENERGY
STAR qualified fixtures are available in hundreds of popular
styles, including portable fixtures-such as table, desk, floor
and torchiere lamps-and hard-wired fixtures such as outdoor,
cabinet, suspended, ceiling-mount, recessed, wall-mount, and
ceiling fans. To save the most energy and money, replace
your highest used fixtures or the light bulbs in them with
energy-efficient models. The 5 highest use fixtures in a home
are typically the kitchen ceiling light, the living room table
and floor lamps, bathroom vanity, and outdoor porch or post
lamp.
The smallest things can add up to a real difference. We
encourage you to change out the light fixtures or bulbs at home
that you use most with ENERGY STAR qualified models. If every
American home changed out just 5 high-use light fixtures or the
bulbs in them with ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR, each
family would save more than $60 every year in energy costs, and
together we'd keep more than one trillion pounds of greenhouse
gases out of our air - equal to the emissions of 8 million cars.
That's a $6 billion energy savings for Americans, equivalent to
the annual output of more than 21 power plants.
FACT: Your home can cause more greenhouse gas emissions than
your car. When you use less energy at home, you reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and help protect our
environment from the risks of global climate change. Source: www.energystar.gov
Be part of the solution
and not part of the problem. Remember, wind turbines are
not a cure, they are only a band-aid being put on a much bigger
problem. Demand that money be spent on conservation and
ways to conserve vs allowing our tax dollars to be used towards
destruction of another one of our natural
resources!
