Challengicious Monday: Change Your Bulbs
>> Monday, March 29, 2010
Mondays are challengicious at The Conscious Shopper. Here's your first energy-related challenge:
Change Your Bulbs
To complete this challenge, you can
BABY STEPS
- Switch to CFLs. This is the baby step of all going green baby steps. Have you changed your lightbulbs yet? (You know they save you money, right?)
- Use motion-sensor lights. Rather than leaving a light on all night outside or in the bathroom, try switching to a light that only turns on when it detects motion.
- Use LEDs. This is the most energy-efficient long-lasting type of lighting; install an LED once and you won't have to replace it for decades. Unfortunately, affordability hasn't caught up with LED technology, and good affordable LEDs will not screw into a standard lightbulb fixture. But while you wait for LED technology to improve, try using LEDs in your recessed lighting and switch to LED Christmas lights.
For more information on lighting, check out I Need...Lighting (Beyond CFLs)
Will You Take the Challenge?
____________________
You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays. Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook!
7 comments:
In addition to using CFLs, using motion sensor lights and LEDs, we should remember to observe proper disposal of CFLs too since they contain mercury! They should be recycled instead of being thrown out. We also wrote about switching to CFLs a few months ago and here's one of our tips: Take used CFL bulbs to the recycling center or seal them in a plastic bag and handle them with care. :)
I have switched all my bulbs to CFLs. I am currently redoing the lighting in my kitchen, so I need to look into the LED! Thanks for that! After that step, I would like to look into replacing my outside lighting with motion sensors. I wonder how costly that is? I'll check into this.
There are only two light fixtures in the home that we haven't put CFLs in (because the bulbs are too big/long for the space). We let them burn out a couple years back and just never replaced them. Everything else is CFLs (we got a bunch a couple years ago when the electric company had a deal going and we could get 4 or 5 for a dollar).
We are getting ready to replace the outdoor fixture (one of the two that doesn't have CFLs) but we've agreed that whatever we get has to be wide/tall enough for CFLs or use LEDs or we just won't get the fixture.
@KaKi - It's not costly at all. At least the way we did it wasn't - we just added a special sensor to the existing light fixtures. I can't remember how much it cost, but I think it was in the range of $10-20.
I'm a geek and counted that I have 58 light bulbs in my house. All but 5 are some sort of energy efficient bulb (CFLs, halogen, etc.) No LEDs yet besides a string of holiday lights due to availability and expense. I still have 5 incandescents in my bedroom. I tried switching them with the candle bulb CFLs but they looked, ah, um...suggestive. I changed them back to incandescents.
LED's also don't emitt any heat.
Great green advice. Thanks for the tips on changing bulbs.
Post a Comment