Does it really matter what type of light bulbs you buy? Do you think that buying a different kind of light bulb will assist in helping the earth with its global warming?

You could, you know, go through your day without thinking "green" and the world would still be here tomorrow, seemingly unaffected by your choice of leaving all of those compact fluorescent light bulbs on the store shelves. The store shelves don’t mind. They don’t even notice that you walked right past them without stopping to say hello.

The new fluorescents don’t care that sitting right next to them the incandescent light bulbs you grew up with are getting so much more attention. They simply and patiently just wait for the savvy "green" consumer to walk by and notice them. So what if they look different. They’re proud and they know that their time will soon come.

But they still ask themselves, "Is it because incandescent light bulbs cost less money? Is it because the human race is slow to change and that "old bulb look" is more comforting to the eye? Or, is the human race merely evolving perfectly and thus consumer awareness equally is evolving at a perfect rate to see the beauty in a new kind of light bulb?"

Let"s see what the light bulbs have to say about this.

The incandescent light bulb says that it costs an average of $.50 for one bulb, while the compact fluorescent bulb says that it costs on the average of $1.95 for one. O.K. so that means that the fluorescent bulb clearly costs an average of $1.45 more than the incandescent bulb.

Now say that your home has 20 light bulb fixtures in it. If you were to go out and buy lights for your whole house using the old, familiar incandescent lighting, it would cost an average of $10. If you were to instead buy cfl’s (compact fluorescent lighting) for all 20 of your fixtures, it would cost an average of $39. Thus the incandescent lighting appears to be the favorable consumer based lighting. It appears to be...

Incandescent light is tired, however. It has been around for over 120 years and is now ready to evolve to a more efficient means of lighting. So it wants you to know this:

If you were to buy just one cfl to replace an old incandescent light bulb, yes you would probably pay an average of $1.45 more for that one light bulb, but you’d also be doing other really cool things.

Instead of having to replace your one incandescent bulb after only approximately 1,500 hours of use, you’d be able to keep that same light bulb perfectly situated in its fixture for approximately 10,000 hours (that’s about 7 years @ 4 hours of use per day). Big difference! So cost wise, you’d have to buy over 6 incandescent light bulbs over that same period of time to keep that particular area lit. You could easily scratch off of your list "buy a new light bulb" for a whole seven years!

Really cool thing #2.

With each incandescent bulb that gets replaced with a cfl bulb, you’ll be saving an average of between $30 and $36 in energy costs over the lifetime of that one single bulb. The incandescent bulb doesn’t want to carry the burden of slyly costing you more money anymore. And just think about the savings over the years if you had 20 compact fluorescent bulbs nicely situated in those fixtures of yours.

Really cool thing #3.

Here’s what "Energy Star" (a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy) has to say:

"If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars."

Wow! Isn’t that incredible? And from just one replaced light bulb! Now let’s hear what the new fluorescent lighting has to say about purchasing, placement, and disposal:

• Cfl’s are usually about ½ inch longer than conventional incandescent light bulbs, but have the same diameter at the base, so they will fit comfortably in almost all of the same fixtures.
• You can buy new cfl’s nearly everywhere you already do your shopping.
• Cfl’s don’t like fixtures that are recessed, enclosed, on a dimmer, or exposed to moisture.
• Cfl’s still contain a small amount of mercury vapor (such a small amount that there aren’t too many reclamation facilities available). So be sure and check with Earth 911 at www.earth911.org for more information on environmentally safe disposal.

So as far as choosing which type of light I’d rather have in my home, I’m gonna have to say that energy efficient lighting is best for me. Not only is it good on my pocketbooks, it’s also hands down, a great choice in assisting the earth to heal.

Happy living, shopping, and learning to you!