Saving money and the planet too

Golly gee, too many more posts like this and I'm going to sound like a tree-hugging hippy. (No offense meant to any tree-hugging hippies out there)

So, my wife and I were in our local Costco the other day when I saw a pallet full of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) . My eyes lit up because lately I've been on a crusade to replace all of the incandescent bulbs in the house. Sure, they cost more, but in the long run, I'll save money on the bulbs, my power bill, and conscience.

As I was looking through the pallet to find a good deal on bulbs I ran across a gold mine: PAR38 Indoor/Outdoor Reflector bulbs... in CFL form at $10 for four. These are those massive outside security lights many people have in their driveways and back yards to light the whole area up. The only problem with PAR38s is that traditionally they are 120 Watts and frequently are left on all night for security reasons. In my case, I have three that light up my driveway: 360 Watts to light up my driveway. I can go through a Kilowatt in three hours.

I pay between 6 and 8.5 cents per Kilowatt hour. We typically like to run our security lights for 5 and 6 hours a night. We'll call it 6 hours because the winter months and summer months will balance out. On that logic, if I run those lights at that rate, I'll run them for 2190 hours each year. At 360 Watts, making 700.8 Kilowatt hours making it $67.01 a year to run these lights

So, the cool thing about the lights replacing them? They only use 23 Watts each and actually produce more light than the ones they replaced (score!) and are supposed to last for 5 years (actually 10,000 hours... so probably more like 4.5 years in my case). So, the three lights together use 69 Watts... Just a little more than your standard brightness incandescent bulb and a little less than a 75 Watt bulb. It would take me about 14.5 hours to go through a Kilowatt. So, I only pay 8.5 cents to run these three bulbs together over the course of 14.5 hours. (SCORE!) My yearly cost: $12.84. A savings of $54.17 minus the cost of the bulbs, $10, making a total savings of $44.17 in the first year. Over the course of the remaining 3.5 years on the bulbs, I'll save an additional $189.60, for a total savings of $233.77. (I could buy a whole gallon of gas in 4 years basically) By the way, these numbers don't include the floodlight in the backyard I replaced as well ;) If you want to include that one, it's actually a savings of $305.02.

In reality, I probably would have replaced those incandescent lights 2 or 3 times over the next 4.5 years, so the cost of the bulbs is likely a wash anyway.

Some Things You Should Know About CFLs

• Many CFLs are not for use with photosensitive ("Dusk Till Dawn") or motion sensitive fixtures . These can cause your bulbs to go bad before they are supposed to. Check your packaging.
  
• 99% of CFLs do not work with dimmer switches and will cause your bulbs to go bad prematurely. There are now some that are manufactured that are specifically to be used with dimmer switches.
• Fluorescent bulbs (CFLs and the long tube type) require a short warmup time. This amount of time is getting shorter and shorter and with some bulbs you don't even notice it. Don't judge a bulb's light output by how it performs for the first 5 seconds. After a while, you won't notice this startup time. In addition, most lights you leave on for longer than 5 seconds.
• Fluorescents use a "starter" (technically called an "Electronic Ballast"). Basically, when the bulb is starting up it uses a little extra electricity to get the bulb started. After a second or two it begins normal operation. If you turn the light on and off rapidly, you will burn out this starter, severely limiting the life of your bulb. Generally, it is recommended to leave any fluorescent light on for at least 15 minutes before turning it off again. (This is based on a recommendation from the Energy Star website)
• If a CFL or Fluorescent light breaks, the Environmental Protection Agency has posted directions on how to cleanup after your little accident. (The following instructions were pulled from the EPA website on 3/17/2008)

Fluorescent light bulbs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing. EPA recommends the following clean-up and disposal guidelines:
Before Clean-up: Ventilate the Room

1. Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
2. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
3. Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

4. Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
5. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
6. Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes and place them in the glass jar or plastic bag.
7. Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

4. Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
5. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
6. If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
7. Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials

8. Immediately place all cleanup materials outside the building in a trash container or outdoor protected area for the next normal trash.
9. Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
10. Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states prohibit such trash disposal and require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Ventilate the Room During and After Vacuuming

11. The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window prior to vacuuming.
12. Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

Well, while you are reading this, get involved, change some bulbs, save the planet. Go join OneBillionBulbs.com. Join my group at One Billion Bulbs and have your stats show up on this blog alongside mine.

www.OneBillionBulbs.com