Saving our environment is on everyone’s mind. One of the best ways to do that is to save energy. A very small item in our home can waste a great deal of energy every day. That small item is a light bulb. How many do you have in your home? Many people have many rooms in their homes and multiple light bulbs in each room. When those lamps are in use, they use energy whether you are in the room with them or not. This causes a lot of wasted energy. But there are ways to reduce the energy that is used by these energy hogs.

Replacing Your Old Incandescent Bulbs

One of the biggest ways to save energy and the environment with old bulbs is to replace them. Regular incandescent lamps, which were the most commonly used in the United States, use a lot of energy. There are several options out there that will save a ton of energy while still allowing you to have all of the illumination you need and want. The light emitting diode, or LED light bulbs, is one example.

It works using electrical current, but uses less energy than a typical old-time incandescent types . They are generally more expensive ($14 to $100) than your other options and they are best for localized areas, such as for use in lamps or smaller lumenaires. They put off a lot less heat than other products, which is yet another way that they save energy.

Halogen bulbs are another energy saving option (though not near that of CFL or LED).   Halogen lamps work in almost the same way as normal incandescents do , but they contain halogen gas, which works to keep the lamp working longer than your typical A type incandescent.   Halogens do use less energy than their closely related cousins, which is a good thing, but they put off heat just like a regular “Edison” lamp. This causes the light to be brighter and whiter. CFLs are the best option for replacing your every day incandescent lamps. CFL bulbs use one fourth of the energy that a a normal household bulb, and they don’t produce the heat which can actually save you on your cooling your home. They are slightly more expensive to start than “energy sucking” incandescents , but they make up that difference in the amount of energy they save and their long life and they do not act like a heat lamp. Normally, a compact fluorescent bulb can last up to 5-7 years (10,000 hours), which is 10x longer than those “energy sucking” lamps.
So, to sum it up, replacing the out of date “heaters” in your house with one of the more energy efficient lighting options that are available is a great way to help the environment and save money. It is amazing how much difference those little darn light bulbs can make in the safety and health of our world. The new bulbs (light emitting diode, halogen, and compact fluorescent) will definitely do their part in saving our environment. We just have to use them! That makes all the difference to our world!

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