Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL)

It's funny.

Four years ago, when we moved into our house, we found that the previous owner had installed compact fluorescent light bulbs throughout the house. One of our first priorties was to replace all of the fluorescent lighting with incandescent lighting. The fluorescent lights turned on slowly and had a strange feel to them. It felt like we never left the office. Do you know what I mean?

About two years ago we starting reading about global warming and the impact of humans on the Earth, and became a little more aware of the little things we can do to make a change. We have always tried to conserve energy by turning off the lights when not in a room or turning down the heat when we are not in the house, but after reading about the long term effects of global warming, we decided to make a bigger effort.

We learned that the compact fluorescent lights are much more energy efficient than the incandescent lights. They can save up to 80% in energy costs. If you have 100 light bulbs in your house, that could turn into real monetary and energy savings over the course of a year. We found an energy savings calculator that illustrates the savings.

Over the last year or so, we have been replacing our incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. The compact fluorescents have come a long way. They no longer have that office, flickering, blue light feel. They are much "warmer", turn on immediately and, best of all, save us money and help save the environment.