Light Up

Here’s the Thing:

Buy an energy-saver light bulb next time you’re at the drug store.

So you don’t need a light bulb. It’s okay, buy one anyway. Here’s why:

I’m switching out my old bulbs as they blow.

“If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.”

800,000 cars! That’s directly off a U.S. government Web site (here). And you know the U.S. government wouldn’t lie to you, right? Or stretch the truth? But anyway, a ton of very reputable organizations are saying the same thing, so this time I’m buying.

A wonderful Web site for people who want to live greener lives, Treehugger.com, explains it like this: Energy saving light bulbs cost a little bit more than the regular ones but only use about a quarter of the energy and last many times longer — about 10,000 hours. It’s estimated that they pay for their higher price after about 500 hours of use, leaving about 9,500 hours of time for you to sit back and watch each bulb pay you back for your purchase — in longer life (for the bulb, not necessarily you, although the lower stress certainly won’t hurt) and lower bills.

The British non-profit Energy Saving Trust puts it this way: “An energy saving recommended light bulb will cost you around £3.50 compared to 50p for a regular bulb, but it will save you around £9 on your annual electricity bill and up to £100 over its lifetime!”

Sure, these babies cost you a little more up front (a lot more if you regularly drop them when trying to put them in, like I just did), but in the long run, they should save you money on your electric bill, and on light bulbs — no matter how many you drop and break.

Plus, less energy used = what? That’s right, less pollution, less climate change, and less dependence on foreign oil (therefore less wars, less drilling in pristine wilderness areas, and less overall craziness in the world – all just for changing a light bulb).

So next time you’re in the store and you happen upon the light bulb section, buy one of these. Then next time you need one, you’ll have one. Stick it in. Once you try ‘em, you’ll be hooked.

If you want to get really into this stuff, check out Treehugger’s great section on How to Green Your Lighting. They’ve even got a list of online sites where you can buy bulbs and other cool accessories right from your desk chair, and they’ve got similar guides showing how to green all aspects of your life.

And if you want to take the next step, check out this brilliant idea from Environmental Action: send a message to Wal-Mart asking them to give out a free energy saving light bulb to each of their 18 million customers nationwide. Imagine the energy savings! (Thanks to Amy Stodghill at It’s The Environment, Stupid for directing me to this one back in November!)

Hey — and don’t think that just cuz you’ve got better light bulbs you can leave them on all the time now. Remeber our “Get Turned Off” post earlier this week?