According to the Energy Federation:

Energy efficient light bulbs use about one-third the electricity of conventional incandescent bulbs to produce the same amount of light, and they last many times longer. Replacing a 60 watt incandescent light bulb with a 15 watt compact fluorescent light bulb will save about $36.00 over the 10,000 hour rated life of the CFL (based on an electric rate of $0.08/kWh), and reduce associated carbon dioxide emissions by over 600 pounds (based on a carbon dioxide conversion factor of 1.43 lbs CO2/kWh).

You can purchase compact fluorescent light bulbs online from the Energy Federation, but we got ours through Lower Valley Energy in conjunction with an Energy Audit of our home. Their fee is a flat $25 for however many bulbs you need to replace, and all you have to do is agree to install all of the CFLs provided within 30 days. (It took me an hour to go through the house and replace 23 bulbs in lamps and ceiling fixtures.)

Here's a snapshot of Lower Valley's Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Exchange Worksheet for my home.

Incandescent bulbs to be replaced:

15 x 60 watt = 900 watts

6 x 75 watt = 450 watts

2 x 100 watt = 200 watts … for a total of 1550 incandescent watts

Replaced with EnergyStar CFLs:

15 x 13 watt = 195 watts

6 x 20 watt = 120 watts

2 x 25 watts = 50 watts … for a total of 365 watts

That's a reduction of 1185 watts, for an estimated annual savings of 1294 kWh.

Based on our average monthly usage of 1514 kWh, that's almost a month's worth of savings. At $0.052 per kWh, that translates into an estimated annual savings of $67.29!

I do have one question: what's the responsible thing to do with the 23 perfectly good incandescent bulbs I just replaced?

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