June 22nd, 2007 @ 11:00 am
Lightbulbs to Change the World
How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World? One. And You’re Looking At It. | Printer-friendly version
What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
We use almost entirely compact fluorescents at our apartment. While we don’t have built in fixtures like a “normal house” we do have a fair share of bulb. Even comparing a 60w incandescent to a 26w (100w equiv) gives you more light with less electricity.
I don’t know why, but I really like the idea of “small changes by lots of people” making such a huge difference.
Go buy a CFL bulb today. In fact, buy a 6 pack at Sams Club or BJ’s and save lots of money!
