Save on your electricity costs and help the environment.
I’ve noticed that many fellow Islanders leave their outside lights on throughout the night. This is great as it provides light for those who walk at night or in the early morning. Leaving a light on also helps deter crime. The down side of this habit is the electricity costs that add up over time; especially if you are using incandescent light bulbs.I've found a great way to reduce this expense is to use Compact Florescent Lamps or CFLs. These are the funny looking light bulbs with the spiral tube shaped to look like a normal bulb. You’ve probably seen them in Lowe’s and Home Depot.
Although the price of CFLs is initially a little higher, the long term costs are much less. Here are the facts on why you should be using CFLs and not normal incandescent bulbs:
- The life span of a CFL is on average 10 times longer (see you are saving money already).
- A CLF saves you over $30 in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime --times this by how many bulbs you have in your house and you’ll see the savings immediately!
- A CLF produces 75% less heat. This means that they can help cut your cooling costs.
- A CLF saves up to 2000 times its weight in greenhouse gasses over its lifetime.
These savings add up. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with a CFL ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.
So the next time you go to replace a bulb in your home, replace it with a CFL with the Energy Star logo. In the long run, it’ll save you quite a bit of money and have a huge impact on helping to save our environment.
I’ve found that cheapest places to purchase CFLs are at SAM’s Club or Costco, the next best prices can be found at the Home Depot
A few global facts about incandescent lights:
- Australia’s Federal Government has
announced the by 2010, the incandescent light bulb would be banned.
- On 6 December 2007, Ireland's Environment minister John Gormley
announced that the country would stop using incandescent bulbs by
January 2009, making it the first country to implement such a ban.
These changes will result in savings of 700,000 tons of carbon
dioxide emissions from residential lighting and will result in Irish
consumers saving over €185 million a year in electricity costs.
- The European Union has proposed a ban on incandescent light bulbs;
however, the proposal has yet to be approved by all member states or
the European Parliament.
- In January 2007, California State
Assembly member Lloyd E. Levine (D-Van Nuys) announced that he would
introduce the "How Many Legislators does it take to Change a Light
Bulb Act" (a reference to light bulb joke), which proposed a ban the
sale of incandescent light bulbs in California starting in 2012. While the bill is now dead, a competing bill by California State
Assembly member Jared Huffman (D-Santa Rosa) was signed by Governor
Schwarzenegger on October 12.
- On December 19, 2007, Congress passed an energy bill that will see the incandescent light bulb phased off the U.S. market beginning in 2012.
Useful Phone Numbers:
| Emergency | 911 |
| Non-emergency Police Dept. | 837-7780 |
| Police District Service Line | 551-3181 |
| Report Code Violations | 893-7373 |
| Mayor's Action Center Code Violations, other issues |
893-7111 |
| Reclaimed Water | 892-5111 |
| Mosquito Control | 464-7503 |
| Refuse Pickup | 893-7360 |
| Rodent Control | 893-7360 |
| Drug Tip Hotline: (anonymous) | 522-5900 |
| CKNA |