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« Earth Day . . . again? | Main | Prom dresses, tiaras and combat boots »

April 24, 2007

A bright kind of proposal

A high school algebra project first clued me in to the inefficiencies of incandescent light bulbs. After working out some basic calculations in the classroom, I was appalled to find just how much electricity these virtual heat-lamps devour (and how much more they add to electric bills) in relation to their fluorescent counterparts. A compact fluorescent light bulb uses less than a quarter of the watts required for an incandescent bulb. Since lighting consumes about 22 percent of electricity in US households, switching bulbs can put a real dent in monthly utilities costs.

Though I tried to explain the ecological/economical sense of CFLs to anyone who might listen, I was often ignored. “They’re too expensive. They don’t give off the right kind of light,” others would say.

Sure, when you’re standing in the home-goods aisle with a few bucks stuffed in your back pocket, it’s difficult to drop several dollars on a funky space-age looking bulb when the traditional ones go for fifty cents apiece.

But over its lifespan, each CFL can save $30 or more and prevent over 450 pounds of power plant emissions. Some of the newer CFLs even mimic the size and shape of a standard incandescent, and they all emit a warm color range unless labeled otherwise. So what gives?

Some lawmakers in California are now considering an efficiency mandate for light bulbs, proposed by Utilities and Commerce Committee chairman Lloyd Levine. Though some argue that consumers should have unlimited choice in what type of light bulbs they purchase, others think the bill is a necessary step in reducing energy consumption and curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the state of California.

Mark Murray of Californians Against Waste said, “It's hard to identify a technology that is more inefficient and backward than the incandescent bulb.”

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