Changed All Our Bulbs to Fluorescent
Submitted By: Tina Tankka (TinyT74@comcast.net)

Challenge
To make changes around our home that conserve energy, reduce waste and generally make it more sustainable.

Solution Details
compactfluor
We've just changed all our bulbs to the compact fluorescent ones. The lighting is remarkably "not blue" and pleasing. And it certainly makes turning on a light a lot less painful. The hardware stores now all sell 100 watt equivalent bulbs and the prices seem to be coming down. I highly recommend the change. The kids see the benefits and realize they can make a difference in their household with the information they bring home from school. (The schools are all pushing for this.) I know the cost of manufacturing a new bulb adds to the industrial pollution but so does the manufacturing of the old bulbs. Besides we will ultimately use less of these new bulbs because they last, practically, forever. After all, we are here forever, aren't we?
 
This second part is for all those who want to compost but can't muster up the energy to get the equipment for the project. We have managed to successfully do the dirty job with quite minimal effort.  Parts of our garden have been designated the compost pit and we just bury all of our non greasy waste rotating between the different parts, keeping them moist. We have no bin. We just bury and chop the waste into the soil with our shovel making sure it's buried. It disappears in a couple of months by which time that little piece of our garden is ready to receive more waste. Sometimes the night time critters find their way but if you chop it in enough with your shovel it becomes even distasteful to them, too. We've dug into our compost patch after a few months and the soil beneath is just glorious.

Benefits & Payback
Lighting is typically the biggest user of electricity after air conditioning and refrigeration. If we estimate that we were spending about $500 per year on lighting our home, then the switch to fluorescent should save us about 75% of that which is $375 per year. This will pay for the cost of the bulbs (< $200) in less than a year. It will also save us the cost of buying replacement bulbs over the next 5 years (since regular bulbs burn out much more quickly), reduce waste, and reduce CO2 emissions caused by our energy use.

Informational Links
Lafayette Ace - has recently had dimmable flood CFLs on sale
OSH in Moraga - has a good selection of CFLs. This may be the easiest place to go if you just want a few bulbs.
Home Depot - has a very good selection of compact fluorescent bulbs at very good prices - look for the ones that say "soft white". This may be the best place to go if you want to buy a lot of bulbs.
Stanley Middle School - has been selling basic CFLs for $2 each (their cost)
Internet Light Bulb Stores - dimmable CFLs have been hard to find locally. They can always be ordered online at Internet stores like bulbs.com or 1000bulbs.com.


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