We’d been planning for awhile to swap out our standard incandescent lights for the compact florescent lights, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Low and behold, one day six weeks ago we bump into a sale at Costco. Not a sale, a give-away. 10 florescent bulbs for $2. That’s $0.20 each. We couldn’t pass it up.
We’ve replaced nearly all of the bulbs in the house. That’s not the only change since last year – all of the computers in the house are now laptops, except for the free-standing server that hosts this webpage. All of our cathode ray screens have been replaced by flat panels in the last year.
Time to check the results. It’s hard to tell, but going back to other October/November billings we’re seeing a 20% drop in energy usage. That means a 40% drop in our electric bill. Our blackmailer utility, Southern California Edison, charges a more-or-less normal national rate for a very, very small amount of electricity, then ramps it up to one of the highest charges anywhere in the world if you go beyond that minimum (see comparison chart here). The energy we saved was all being charged at $0.30 per kilowatt/hr.
In the summertime, just looking at an air conditioner requires taking out a second mortgage.
Beware that those florescent lights have mercury in them so
1 – you can’t toss them in the garbage – must recycle
2 – if one gets broken during a pillow fight you’re going to have a mercury tainted living area which is very very bad for babies and pregnant ladies (ask me how I know this)
we’ve switched back to standard bulbs in appliances that might be innocent bystanders in pillow fights.