According to the U.S. Department of Energy, American households could save 31.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually by switching to compact fluorescent lights. That's enough electricity to light about one-third of all U.S. households for an entire year.
Standard incandescent bulbs cost the least to purchase, but the most to operate. Only 10 percent of the energy consumed is used to produce light; the rest is wasted as heat.
A heavy cost of dust on a light bulb can block up to 50 percent of the light output.
A compact fluorescent light bulb, which costs between $5-$20, can pay for itself in energy savings in about two years, and it'll last for two more years.
A 100-watt bulb produces 50 percent more light than four 24-watt bulbs -- for the same amount of energy.
When just one room in every home is brightened by EnergyStar lighting, the change will keep over 1 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide out of our air.
A typical household spends $90 a year, or 10 percent of its annual electric bill, on lighting.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 75 percent less energy to produce the same amount of light, and they last ten times longer -- up to four years per bulb.
Watts measure the amount of energy needed to power a light bulb. Lumens measure how much light a bulb produces. Energy-saving bulbs produce more lumens per watt of electricity used.
If you replace a 60-watt incandescent bulb with a 15-watt compact fluorescent and use it six hours a day, you could see an energy savings of more than $40 over the four-year life of the bulb. |
