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September 01, 2006
Weird Bulb, Big Savings
Want to save energy? Try this:
Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.My wife and I use some of these in the house - I actually find them a lot less scary to put into a socket, as regular bulbs always seem fragile.What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
This is the way I think Americans can help protect the environment - technology and the marketplace. It doesn't take government mandates or excessive regulation - just a few million people who make the choice to switch from one type of bulb to another to save some money on the electric bill. If policymakers want to get involved, how about offering a tax rebate to people who purchase energy efficient items?(h/t: Instapundit)
Posted by slublog at September 1, 2006 12:00 AM
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Comments
I have a couple of those and they work pretty well. They are considerably more expensive than regular bulbs though - you have to be willing to cough up the extra dough up front to get those long term savings. Here in Nevada they passed a law recently that gives property tax breaks on new development that meets certain LEED standards. In fact the organization I work for is going to move into a brand new building built to silver certification level next summer.
Posted by: Enas Yorl at August 31, 2006 11:03 PM
Hey,
I tried to send a trackback ping to that url, but it's not taking. Here's my take on cf bulbs:
http://torsrants.blogspot.com/2006/09/mixed-results-with-compact-fluorescent.html
Posted by: Tor at September 1, 2006 01:50 AM
Ikea sells inexpensive packs of CF bulbs if you ever make it down there. The wife and I use them in over half of all the fixtures in our house. Especially in places where there are lots of lights that get left on by accident.
Posted by: kurtronix at September 1, 2006 08:45 AM
Yeah, I've been working to get trackbacks back on. Will tinker with the HTML this weekend...
Posted by: Slublog at September 1, 2006 10:05 AM