One Habit at a Time – Change Your Lightbulbs

What a year it has been!  In December 2006, the Cool Planet Working Group led its first activity in conjunction with California Interfaith Power and Light (www.interfaithpower.org).  This Advent project, called “Change a light bulb, Change the world”, encouraged families to switch out one incandescent bulb for one compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) on each Sunday of Advent.  In December 2007, Congress passed an energy bill that will phase out incandescent bulbs by 2014.

Why is this such a big deal?  According to the December 19th, 2007, U.S. New and World Report,
"Moving to more efficient lighting is one of the lowest-cost ways for the nation to reduce electricity use and greenhouse gases…Ninety percent of the energy that an incandescent bulb burns is wasted as heat".

That article also answers a lot of questions about switching over to CFLs.  Another good source is

       www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/ask_us/faq_compact.htm

which answers questions such as “Can I use a CFL with a dimmer?”, “in a 3-way lamp?”, “outdoors?”, “in an enclosed fixture?” (The short answer to all of these is “yes”, but you may need a special kind of CFL.)

CFLs are now widely available and come in varying sizes and light characteristics. If you’ve had an unsatisfactory experience with CFLs, now is the time to try again. The following article compares various solutions:

       www.ewg.org/node/27220     

This article inspires by calculating how much energy would be saved if each household changed out one bulb:
      
       www.energyquest.ca.gov/saving_energy/fluorescent_facts.html

Remember that CFLs do eventually burn out, and when they do, they must be disposed of correctly. Locally IKEA and Palo Alto Hardware collect used CFLs. The articles above also discuss how to clean up if a CFL is broken.

This month’s challenge is to see if you can find more places to install CFLs.  For the biggest energy savings, choose spots where they remain on for long periods, such as reading lamps, overhead fixtures and outdoor lights.

With New Year’s wishes for a healthier planet in 2008!

First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto
www.fprespa.org/coolplanet
January, 2008