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  #1  
Old 03-10-2008, 10:42 AM
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zach Offline
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Lightbulb Change your light bulbs.

I’ve seen people and companies selling energy efficient bulbs recommend that you go through your house and replace all you bulbs right away. Compact fluorescent light bulbs consume much less energy than a typical incandescent bulb but I don’t recommend pulling out all your bulbs and replacing them all at once. I haven’t see any research on this but I suspect the effort that goes into creating these more complex light bulbs and getting them to market probably consumes a fair amount of energy. This is wasteful unless you have something to do with the old bulbs besides filling up a landfill. Maybe donate them to a church or school or use them in a rarely used place like the light on a pull chain in a closet or the attic. But if they still work no sense in junking them all.
Replacing them all at once can also be expensive. Compact fluorescent bulbs cost considerably more so I would recommend just replacing your old bulbs as they burn out. You could also move your bulbs around so you use compact fluorescent bulbs in lights you use most often and put the old bulbs in rarely used lights to live out the rest of their lives. They will probably pay for themselves in energy savings over time but unless you have a lot of bulbs that are on all the time I don’t you aren’t going to see a drastic change in your electric bill. Every little bit counts though.
The U.S. government has also past regulations that will phase out the sale of incandescent bulbs in the U.S. by 2014. So you might as well do the environment and yourself a favor and start switching out those old light bulbs now.


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Old 04-19-2008, 05:54 PM
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Moderation is always the best policy. Throwing things away is never a good idea. Donation, Recycling, Composting, or at the very least properly disposing of goods that have been used to the limit of possible usefulness.... trashing perfectly useful household items is absolutely ridiculous.

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Old 05-22-2008, 01:19 PM
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So true! Just be careful because the first "spiral" energy saving light bulbs contain mercury. Not a problem until they break!!

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Old 07-07-2008, 06:10 AM
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When I replaced my incandescents, I put them away until winter. In my home, I use electric heat, so for the winter, it is OK to use incandescent lights that make 75% heat and only 25% light. The heat produced will not be wasted energy but will reduce the demand from my heaters. However, once I no longer turn on the heater I switch back to the fluorescent.

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Old 07-08-2008, 05:24 AM
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I'm not sure the figures quite add up there. Your fluorescent bulbs should save a lot more energy than the fractional savings on your heating.
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Old 07-08-2008, 02:42 PM
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I think the whole point of the thread is to discourage throwing away incandescent bulbs because of the energy required to manufacture them. So, if I understood correctly, Marc chose to keep the incandescents that he was replacing and use them only during the winter - which is the greener alternative, IMHO.

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Old 07-09-2008, 02:35 AM
alawston Offline
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Ah well, my mistake. I still favour gradually replacing the incandescent bulbs as they burn out. Although my landlord persists in putting ridiculous light features in the kitchen ceiling, and I'm having trouble finding a fluorescent equivalent.
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Old 08-03-2008, 11:29 AM
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If you have electric heat that uses a heat pump there is a great device that can save you up to 25% off your electric bill at http://Got-Green-Energy.com. It is saving me on avg. 18% a month - more now that it is summer and we have been running the ac

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Old 08-03-2008, 11:30 AM
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Just for the record, some time in the next 1 - 11/2 yrs. they are not going to even make incandescent bulbs any more - ony cfl's.

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Old 12-06-2008, 11:24 AM
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I agree with you Zach. I just replace them with the greener alternatives as they burn out.

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