Change to Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
This is a tip seen everywhere these days, but it really is one of the easiest green changes you can make. Here is an article from last year discussing these in depth, and another that talks about the mercury in the bulbs. The cost of these bulbs has come way down. In 1998 the cost of a single 25 watt CF bulb was about 35.00. Keep your eyes open for deals since, with special pricing and utility rebates, today you can buy a package of CFLs at a cost of less than $1.00 per bulb. The bulbs use 1/4 the energy of incandescent so can now pay for themselves in energy savings within the first month or two. Because they last up to 5 years, they are ideal for hard to reach light fixtures.
Although the flickering common with early models of CFLs has been largely eliminated, the rare person can still be sensitive to the light from these bulbs. For this reason, if you are one of those folks, they might not be the solution for all fixtures. For example, you might not want to use them in the lamp beside your reading chair. TO learn everything there is to know about CFLs, visit OneBillionBulbs.com. They even have a link in their sidebar with the steps to take if you break a CFL.
The CFLs do need to be recycled because they contain a small amount of mercury. This is my biggest concern about these and the main drawback to their widespread use. Unless there is a real easy way to recycle them, several years from now when the first of them need to be replaced, most people will just toss them in the trash. This issue needs to be addressed. Unfortunately right now the focus is on getting them into every home, not on what to do with them years down the road when they start to burn out. Unfortunately, there may never be a real solution that gets the majority of these bulbs recycled. Just as in the manufacturing of any product, the best approach is to not use hazardous compounds in the product in the first place.
The best option in lighting technology is LED bulbs. I really hope these become widely available over the next few years. Here is a site that sells LED light bulbs with pricing ranging from approximately $15.00 to $60.00. There are many other places that sell them now, but they will be more practical in the future when the price comes down or they start to receive some of the utility rebates now enjoyed by CFLs. Unfortunately, the hard truth is that for now, LED light bulbs are prohibitively expensive for most uses.
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