Reduce home energy costs - Thinking green with lightbulbs

Did you know?

Excerpts from EnergyStar.gov:

Just by replacing one light bulb in every home in America with a compact fluorescent or other Energy Star light bulb, energy usage would be reduced by over $600,000,000 annually. That's enough energy saved to light over three million homes.

In addition, greenhouse gases equal to that produced by over 800,000 cars would be eliminated.

ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs:

• ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.
• Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime.
• Produce about 75 percent less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
• Are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors.

How to Choose and Where to Use CFLs:

ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs provide the greatest savings in fixtures that are on for a substantial amount of time each day. At a minimum, ENERGY STAR recommends installing qualified CFLs in fixtures that are used at least 15 minutes at a time or several hours per day. The best fixtures to use qualified CFLs in are usually found in the following areas of your home:

• family and living rooms
• kitchen
• dining room
• bedrooms
• outdoors
• Read More
  

===Incandescent lights===
The phase-out of incandescent light bulbs was supported by a coalition of light bulb manufacturers, electric utilities and conservation groups. The group estimated that lighting accounts for 22% of total U.S. electricity usage, and that eliminating incandescent bulbs completely would save $18 billion per year (equivalent to the output of 80 [[fossil fuel power plant|coal plants]]).Matthew Wald, "A U.S. Alliance to Update the Light Bulb", ''The New York Times,'' Mar 14, 2007.
Light bulb manufacturers also hoped a single national standard would prevent the enactment of conflicting bans and efficiency standards by state governments.
Source

Save money and help the environment in your Cape Cod home by replacing frequently used lights with energy star bulbs.