Get the Greatest Envirohuman Impact for Low Investments

Sure, they cost more up-front, but compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are probably one of the easiest installments you can make to reduce your carbon footprint. While they cost a few times as much as their incandescent counterparts, they last longer and use much less energy. They also convert much more of the energy used to light than do incandescents. Incandescents have more heat output than CFLs which is bad in summer, and, believe it or not, in the winter as well. Because light bulbs are made to shed light on our lives and not give off heat, they are less efficient at heating our homes than if our furnaces worked a little more to make up for the heat you won't get from your new CFLs. Of course, you don't want your air conditioner fighting your lightbulbs in the summer.

Over the lifetime of your bulb, you can save a great deal on energy as well, because CFLs use a fraction of the energy used by incandescent bulbs with the same light output. Of course prices vary among companies, but EnviroHumanImpact rates this the #1 "best bang for your buck" pick for the small investment you can make for your home to reduce your energy use. More helpful environmental hints will follow in future posts for other little things you can do that add up to a lot when millions of people begin to partake.

That's the greatest part of the CFL hype -- it's no longer a fad -- Wal-Mart's and Home Depot's recent moves to have more prominent shelf placement for CFLs and signage detaling the real environmental and financial benefits to customers means that more and more people are discovering that this is an easy way to save the environment -- and money!

Don't feel like converting your entire home over to CFLs at once? It seems like a lot if you consider that a CFL's original cost might be 3 or more times the cost of an incandescent one (depending upon the deal you come across) and the more bulbs you have, the more it's going to cost you to replace them (that is, in the short-term; the savings from less energy use will add up later). So, replace one, or buy a three-pack until all of them have been replaced. The point is, do it slowly if replacing 20+ bulbs all at once is not feasible. Also, check with your municipality to see if free or reduced cost CFLs are available. The City of Chicago is giving away Free CFLs to residents in Spring, 2007.

Just be sure that you stick to a policy of making these wise investments and as your old bulbs burn out, replace them with CFLs to for a fast, positive envirohuman impact with the real result of less energy being used to get the same job, lighting our homes, done. Once you've made the conversion, you'll spend less for lighting, less for air conditioning, you'll replace your bulbs less often*, and you will have no sacrifice, but you'll pollute less.



*Disclaimer: CFLs tend to last longer in situations where the light is used for a longer period of time, for instance an office compared to a bathroom light. Turning the bulbs on and off many times shortens their lifespans, but the same is true of incandescent bulbs.