Reduce Monthly Electricity Costs on Lighting
If you want to save money on your power bills this DIY cut monthly electricity costs article is going to show you some great and practical ways. You and your family could enjoy some new green products or even a small vacation.
Compact Fluorescent Lamp aka CFL or circular fluorescent bulb. Incandescent bulbs generate light differently to a CFL bulb.
Thomas Edison was the inventor of incandescent light bulbs and since his invention the general principle of them is still the same. When electricity is connected to both of the sides of a carbon filament, it gets hot and light is produced. CFLs and normal fluoro tubes contain a closed glass tube with a fluoro coating that glows when current is applied to the argon and mercury vapour 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. If you want to save money look for the green products. One of the newer Energy Star compact fluorescent light bulbs saves around 75% in costs over the equivalent incandescent bulb. In a period of 6 months A CFL bulb will pay for itself and save you about $30 per bulb over the period of its lifetime!
There are different choices for the color of the light omitted from the CFL bulbs these days. The mood of the rooms in your house, office or any other rooms can be greatly changed. You can choose CFL colors varying from a warm yellow to a daylight blue. Choosing a warmer colored light would be the right choice if you prefer incandescent bulbs. Be aware that the daylight or bluer light comes across as very harsh white light and can have negative effects on people that are sensitive to light.
If you look at the package that the bulb comes in it should have K for Kelvin rating, which gives you the “temperature” of the bulb. A Kelvin rating of 2700K-3000K means it’s a warm/yellow bulb. 3500K-4100K Kelvin rating will get you a cool white bulb. And a 5000K-6500K Kelvin rating would give you that Daylight blue look.
To replace 40 watt incandescent bulbs, use 9-13 watt CFL bulbs to get the same results. Replace a 60 watt incandescent with a 13-15 watt CFL. For a 75 watt incandescent use an 18-25 watt CFL. And look for the 23-30 watt CFLs if you want to replace 100 watt incandescent bulbs.
Please remember to recycle all compact fluorescent bulbs. In some states disposing of mercury filled bulbs with solid waste rubbish is illegal. They do this as about 5 milligrams of mercury is in each CFL bulb.
When you want to recycle your used CFL green products, places like ACE Hardware, Orchard (OSH), IKEA and Home Depot will accept and properly dispose of the used CFL bulbs.
If it’s decorative lights you are after, try Energy Star qualified light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. These LEDs use up to 90% less energy than the same incandescent bulbs to produce exactly the same amount of light! I have heard that the power needed for only one 7 watt incandescent bulb could be used to power up to 140 LEDs!
Give the CFLs a try for inside and the LEDs for the outside. They will save you some good money and reduce your carbon footprint.
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you can start off with a few solar panels, just enough to power your lights or maybe enough to power a workshop or hobby shop.