Get a green light
30 Apr '07 from the editors
Before you flip that switch ... Did you know that, according to the Department of Energy, lighting accounts for 8 percent of total energy consumption and 22 percent of the electricity used in the United States?
Now, we're not advocating for a return to lanterns and candles (not yet, at least), but it's this type of information that should get you thinking about your light bulbs. Is that an incandescent bulb in the lamp flickering overhead? If it is, it's time to seriously consider a change.
Compact flouresent bulbs, while more expensive than their incandescent counterparts, use 2/3 less energy and last 10 times longer. Another alternative, LED lighting, can reduce energy consumption by providing 4 times the efficiency of traditional incandescent and halogen light bulbs, according to Color Kinetics. Color Kinetics also predicts that at least 75 percent of commercial lighting in the U.S. will be produced by energy-efficient LED sources by 2030.
That's good news when you consider that commercial buildings account for 51 percent of total energy consumption for lighting in the U.S. vs. 27 percent for residential.
In other words: Switch your bulbs at home and then see if you can't get your boss to do the same at the office.
Image www.sxc.hu, Afonso Lima
CF bulbs and mercury
can you please address the issue of mercury, a potent neurotoxin, and its presence in the latest "green" promotion of these compact fluorescent bulbs? since i understand that they require special disposal processes, which, let's face it, 90% of people are unlikely to undertake for a lightbulb, aren't these sort of the moral equivalent of calling nuclear power "green" just because it doesn't emit greenhouse gases?