Energy Saving CFL Light Bulbs as a Way to Cut your Carbon Footprint
Go straight to the CFL Buying Guide
Traditional incandescent light bulbs give off about 90% of the energy they use in the form of heat, not light. This has a huge impact on your carbon emissions and global warming. This 90% is essentially wasted energy resulting in pointless carbon emissions and giving you an unnecessarily larger carbon footprint.
But don’t worry, there is a simple solution to this problem that will help you stop global warming. Changing your light bulbs to the energy saving variety has a huge impact on your carbon footprint by drastically reducing the energy used and in turn shrinking your carbon emissions. The technical term for these bulbs is CFL (compact fluorescent). On average, an energy saving CFL bulb will use 75% less energy and will last 10 times longer! This means cutting your carbon footprint by three quarters and a quick and easy reduction to carbon emissions to fight global warming.
Impact on Global Warming for Energy Saving CFL Light Bulbs
Here is an alarming statistic – if every home in the US changed only their 5 most used bulbs with CFLs, we would collectively save $8 billion in energy costs. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from this is roughly equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road. Needless to say, that would have a serious impact on global warming.
Where to Make the Switch to Energy Saving CFL Light Bulbs
So where should you make the switch? It is most important to start off by changing the most used bulbs in your house to energy saving CFL bulbs as this will have the biggest impact on your carbon footprint and on global warming. Generally, the most used bulbs are found in the kitchen, family and dining rooms, bedrooms, and on your front porch. This is not to say that you shouldn’t change all of your lights to energy saving CFL bulbs, as the more you change the more you will reduce your carbon emissions and the bigger positive impact you will have on global warming.
Unfortunately, energy saving light bulbs are not perfect, so we will also discuss their drawbacks. The biggest difference that you will notice is that it can take a few minutes for your energy saving CFL bulbs to ‘warm up’ and reach their full brightness. If you ask us, that is a small sacrifice to make to help fight global warming and cut your carbon footprint.
You may have also heard that you cannot use energy saving CFL bulbs with dimmers. While this was once true, it is no longer the case. You just have to make sure that you buy energy saving CFL bulbs that are compatible with dimmers as not all of them are. You should also note that these will not last as long as other energy saving CFL bulbs, but will surely outlast your old lights and cut your carbon footprint and your energy bills!
Ready to make the switch? Check out our buying guide to help cut your carbon emissions
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