Category Archives: Light Bulbs

Back in March I posted about California presenting Bill No. 722 to ban most incandescent medium screw based lamps by the year 2012, well that has been put on hold.  The bill was moved to the legislative inactive file by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine on June 7th.  This has raised the attention of many American Lighting Association members who are for the Energy Efficient lighting fixtures movement that has been prominent in California.

It seems that there was not enough support to carry the bill.  With lighting being roughly 20% of the nations energy consumption per year I would think that this would be an important concern especially in a state as large as California.

What It has been proven that lighting is responsible for the consumption of 22% of all of the electricity produced in the US.  The energy consumed by lighting can be drastically reduced by something as simple as changing out at least five highly used incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps.  This simple change will save you money and help the growing fight to save our Earth.

www.OneBillionBulbs.com This energy savings calculator will help you determine how much money you can save when replacing incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps.  The energy savings calculator will also help you see how much green house gas emissions are not added to our atmosphere because of the change you have made.

What are Greenhouse Gases?

Greenhouse Gases help sunlight enter our atmosphere freely.  When the sunlight hits the Earth’s surface, some of that light and heat is reflected back towards space. Greenhouse gases absorb this light and heat and trap it in the atmosphere.  The amount of energy sent from the sun to the Earth’s surface should be about the same as the amount of energy radiated back into space, leaving the temperature of the Earth’s surface roughly constant.

This is not the case when there are too many greenhouse gases present in the ozone layer.  An over abundance of these gases are causing the current “Greenhouse Effect” that is responsible for the warming trend being felt all over world.  The longer this trend continues the hotter our climate will get.  Hotter temps mean the melting of the polar ice caps which means the elevation of our oceans.  Yep say good bye to that beach side property in Florida.

Everyone has the ability to make a few simple lamp replacements and if almost every makes these changes than the world will be a cooler place.  And you can keep the beach front property.

Energy efficient or Energy Star Rated lighting are becoming more and more popular.  The main problem I have run into with people wanting to convert their light sources to a more energy efficient source is that they think compact fluorescent lamps are not dimmable.  Fluorescent lamps are dimmable with a special dimming ballast and fluorescent dimming control.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) are Dimmable

Dimmable ballasts have been available for fluorescent tubes for years it is only recently that dimmable fluorescent ballasts have become available for CFLs.  These dimmable CFLs make it very easy for anyone to save energy with their existing lighting.  Sylvania makes a dimmable CFL that can retro fit almost any application.  Minka-Lavery Outdoor just came out with a full Energy Star and Dark Sky rated outdoor lighting line.

The following are dimmable CFLs and what type of incandescent lamp they would replace.

• Mini Spiral or standard spiral CFL replaces the standard appliance A bulb
• R30 & R40 CFL replace the R30 & R40 incandescent reflectors

What are the savings to make my lighting more efficient?

The R30 dimmable CFL can retrofit into most 6″ aperature recessed downlight fixtures providing dimmable light at at least a 40% energy savings.  The intial cost of the CFL is usually $ 14 to $ 19 dollars compared to $ 1.50 to $ 3.00 for the incandescent lamp.  The energy consumption of this one CFL should be about 124.8 kWh/yr at an average cost of .07 cents per kWh that is about $ 8.74 a year.  The Incandescent costs about $ 13.00 per year to run.  The CFL has an average lamp life of 10,000 hours while the incandescent lamp only has 1,000 to 2,000 hours.

Within two years you will have saved a few dollars in energy costs,  will still not have to drive up to the store to buy bulbs or change the lamp for another two years.  Using CFLs also create less of a need for the manufacturing of lamps reducing the consumption of raw materials used to create the lamps.