DIY Cut Monthly Electricity Costs on Lighting
This article is the first of a list of practical things you can do to save lots of money on your monthly electric consumption bills with DIY cut monthly electricity costs. You could get yourself some new green products or even take you and your family on a mini vacation.
The abbreviation CFL stands for Compact Fluorescent Lamp, sometimes known as a circular fluorescent bulb. A CFL does not generate light the way incandescent bulbs do.
Since Thomas Edison’s invention of incandescent light bulbs they have pretty much worked the same way. After electricity is connected to both sides of the carbon filament it gets hot and the outcome is light. Normal fluoro tubes and CFLs have a closed glass tube that has a fluoro coating which glows as current is applied to the mercury vapour and argon inside.
You might’ve heard how the incandescent bulbs work but if you are using the bulb more than a couple of times a year, your money is being wasted, no matter how cheap the bulb was. Green products will help you save money. Saving around 75% in costs is the newer Energy Star compact fluorescent lights compared with the incandescent bulbs. A CFL light bulb will save you about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself within 6 months!
CFLs have been out for several years and as far as the different light omitted they have come a long way. This can really enhance the mood of the room, home office or family room. The CFL bulb colors offer a variety of choices from daylight blue to warm yellow. If you prefer the look and feel of what incandescent bulbs offer choose a warm light. A good thing to remember is that the bluer light can be quite harsh and have negative effects on light sensitive people.
Take a look on the packaging for a number that ends in K which stands for Kelvin, it gives you the temperature of the bulb. A Kelvin rating of 2700K-3000K means it’s a warm/yellow bulb. If you’re looking for a cool white bulb look for a rating of 3500K-4100K. And a 5000K-6500K Kelvin rating would give you that Daylight blue look.
Use 9-13 watt CFL bulbs if you want to replace 40 watt incandescent bulbs. Use a 13-15 watt CFL to replace a 60 watt incandescent. Use an 18-25 watt CFL to replace a 75 watt incandescent bulb. And if you want to replace 100 watt incandescent bulbs look for the 23-30 watt CFLs.
Always recycle all your old fluorescent bulbs where possible. It’s forbidden in some states to throw away old mercury bulbs with the normal solid waste trash. They do this as about 5 milligrams of mercury is in each CFL bulb.
If you want places to recycle your used CFL bulbs and other green products you can take them to places such as IKEA, (OSH) Orchard, ACE Hardware and Home Depot.
If you are looking for decorative lights, Energy Star qualified light emitting diode bulbs (LED) are a great alternative. These bulbs create the exact same amount of light as their equivalent incandescent bulb and use up to 90% less energy! It takes the same amount of energy to power up one 7 watt incandescent bulb as it does to power up to 140 LEDs!
Give the CFLs a try for inside and the LEDs for the outside. These will reduce your carbon footprint and save you lots of money at the same time.
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