The CFL Evolution
Weird topic for a post, but it’s on a topic that is I’m greatly interested in. Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (or CFLs), offers a way of bringing extraordinary energy savings to homes everywhere.
Why am I interested in this? Across this country and world, people are beginning to realize that our current level of energy consumption is not sustainable to maintain the standard-of-living we desire. This is an important distinction. All this talk about global warming destroying the planet is overblown — the critical question we must ask ourselves is what standard of living are we as a society willing to accept.
Energy consumption is a primary influencer in this debate, because of its far reaching effects in environmental, social, and political circles. In America, home lighting is one of the most inefficient means of consuming energy. The primary means of lighting our homes hasn’t changed since Edison invented the incandescent lightbulb. A current passes through thin metal filament, which heats up and emits light. An incandescent lightbulb converts 95% of electricity to heat, not light. That extra heat makes your air conditioning unit work harder to remove. And the amount of electricity consumed is enormous. A standard light bulb is 60W. How many 60 watt lightbulbs do you have in your home? The total wattage consumed adds up really fast.
From the US government’s Energy Star website:
If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.
Compact fluorescent lightbulbs consume 75-80% less power to emit an equivalent amount of light. They fit in the same sockets. And these aren’t your grandfather’s fluorescent light bulbs either — electronic circuitry and new materials have made these new bulbs flicker-free and emitting good quality light.
Why do these interest me so much? The cost and ease of adoption. This isn’t “Buy a Hybrid Car, Save the Planet!” This isn’t asking people to lay down $20,000 for solar panels, or go switch out their entire A/C unit. This a lightbulb. It takes 18 seconds to replace. It is widely available across the country.
At Wal-Mart yesterday, I bought 40W and 60W equivalent CFLs for $2.47 a bulb. Yes, this is much more expensive than a traditional bulb, which say $0.20 to $0.30 each. I saw in California that Pacific Gas & Electric is even subsidizing CFLs to bring them down to $0.50 a bulb. When used in the areas — where you use a light fixture often and for long periods, like a family room or kitchen or office — the cost savings over time can be huge. In doing a quick calculation for my home, the break-even point occurs at just over 2 years and results in $75 to $100 of savings in a year.
I’m not advocating putting CFLs everywhere. But consider places where it makes sense, and I encourage you to try it out. For more information, this is a fantastic article on CFLs and where they are going next.
