Little things can add up, and add up quickly. Target stores recently ran a television advertisement that was instructive: If each one of their customers replaced one incandescent lightbulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, it would have the same impact as removing 1,000,000 cars from the road.

As I write this, I’m looking at a package of four Philips Marathon 100 compact fluorescent lightbulbs acquired from Costco for $10 (there was a special program from PG&E that gave an instant rebate to get that price – what a great program.)

Why should you invest in making the change to compact fluorescent? Here is some data to show the benefit of a 23 watt compact fluorescent vs. a standard 100 watt incandescent bulb over the life time of the product.



Reason #1, for each bulb you replace, you’re going to get a $93.25 benefit over the lifetime of the bulb. That’s real, tangible money in your pocket.

Reason #2, for each bulb you replace, you’ll reduce your energy demand by 770 kilowatt hours. Assuming that 50% of that electricity is provided by coal fired plants (as is the case in the US on average,) that will displace 350kg of carbon dioxide emission and 5.8 kg of (SO2 and NOX) per bulb.

Now, walk around your home and count the number of incandescent light bulbs…As a test I counted for one floor of my house, 33 bulbs. The cold hard math on this is that by replacing the 33 incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs it puts $3,077.25 in my pocket, displaces 10,725 kg of carbon dioxide, and displaces 191 kg of SO2 and NOX. Here’s the question, can you afford not to make the change?

This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 10:04 am and is filed under Conservation.