Counting Down to Earth Day 2013: 4.16.13

Welcome to Day 7 of my Counting Down to Earth Day 2013 challenge.

Today’s Tip: SWAP OUT YOUR INCANDESCENT BULBS

Thomas Edison’s light bulb is on its way out. The Energy Independence and Security Act  (ERISA) of 2007 set its demise in motion—for good reason. The 134-year-old incandescent light bulb converts only 5 -10% of the electricity it uses into light; the rest is given off as heat. An excellent article in Popular Mechanics explains the details of ERISA, sometimes called the “Lightbulb Law.” The act did not ban any specific type of lightbulb. Rather, it mandated that by the end of 2012 most household bulbs (with some exceptions) NEWLY STOCKED IN STORES must use 30% less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs. Big government is not going to check out your light fixtures to see if you have made the switch. 

Once you realize how much energy (and money) you can save by swapping out your old- school bulbs, my guess is that you will want to make the switch NOW.

There are a number of alternatives to the incandescent lightbulb, each of which offers significant energy savings. Each choice has pros and cons. How is a consumer to decide? It can all seem a little daunting.

Consumer choices fall into three categories: 

• Halogens (Energy-Saving Incandescents) estimated to have a 25% savings
• CFLs (Compact Fluorescents) estimated to have 75% energy savings
• LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) estimated to have 75-80% savings 

Not all bulbs in each category are created equal. And different categories of bulbs are pricier than others. Consumer Reports has an online guide to help you decide which bulb is best for each application in and around your home.

One easy tip is to purchase bulbs that have earned the ENERGY STAR rating, particularly in the case of LEDs, with their higher price tag.

LEDs offer the highest energy savings, but also have the highest price tag. However, their price has begun to fall dramatically, and thus, so has their payback time. One recently introduced product, Cree’s new home LED bulb, sold at Home Depot, has broken the $10 per bulb price barrier AND received rave reviews from both The Verge and David Pogue of the New York Times. 

Don’t wait to change your way of light. It’s good for the planet AND your wallet.

Come back tomorrow for a new tip as we count down to Earth Day on April 22.

Love Your Mother (Earth). Pass it on. Together we can make a difference. Yes, we can!

Free Things Friday

Worthy Things to Do, Listen To, or View that Won’t Cost You a Dime


TGIF. I’m sure at least some of you will be online for part of today or the weekend ahead. I’ve been doing my share of surfing and bookmarking. Here is my current short list of bests. I’ve tried to include something for everyone.

• Sing a Song. Pass it On. In Out of Many We Are One artists Joanie Spear and Thomasina Levy articulate the need for Americans to find common ground in a difficult time. Listen to the song while you watch the video, then download an mp3 and the words and music, all for free. The artists write, “We hope you will take this song to your friends, your singing groups and choirs and sing it!”

• If you plan to buy an appliance at a Presidents’ Day sale, check out the ENERGY STAR site before you shop. You can also find current rebates at this site. Be good to the planet and to your wallet. An old post of mine might be helpful, too.

• Answer one of many calls to action. Here are just two. If you live in California, you might consider signing the petition for calling for one million green cars. If your municipality or any group with which you are affiliated is still buying bottled water, consider pledging to Think Outside the Bottle. For talking points, watch The Story of Bottled Water, one of the videos in the Story of Stuff project. Those who live in New Haven will have an opportunity to call for the end of the City’s purchase of bottled water at a public hearing on Tuesday night.

• Find out just how good your shampoo (or deodorant, and now even the chocolate you plan to buy for Valentine’s Day) really is for you, the people who make it, and the environment. You can search for ratings on all types of products at GoodGuide, also available as an app for your iPhone. More on GoodGuide in a future post.

• Watch The Warriors of Qiugang: A Chinese Village Fights Back, a documentary nominated for a 2011 Academy Award. Co-produced by Yale Environment 360, Warriors tells the story of villagers in China who fought to close the chemical plant that was ruining their way of life. The entire 39 minute film is available for viewing online.

• Go Ahead, Laugh! Portlandia, a new comedy series starring SNL’s Fred Armisen, pokes some good-natured fun at the Green life. The series is being shown Friday nights on IFC at 10:30. If you don’t get that channel, you can watch free clips here. Be sure to check out “Is It Local?”

• On Saturday, February 12, beginning at 10:30 AM, watch the TED^X Manhattan conversations on “Changing the Way We Eat.” Slow Food USA President Josh Viertel will be speaking at 2:45 PM EST.

• Download one of my favorite songs, Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” Now free on iTunes. Get it while you can.  

That's it for today. Valentine’s Day is coming. Please remember to share with a friend or loved one.

Changing Your Way of Light

One very easy way to make your carbon footprint smaller is to swap out your incandescent lightbulbs for compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). For now, it is still your choice to pick incandescents over CFLs. But before too long, what we have all come to know as “the light bulb” will disappear from the store shelves.

The incandescent lightbulb has remained pretty much unchanged since it was made commercially viable by Thomas Edison in 1879. This is the light bulb with which we all grew up — the one used in all the cartoons to indicate “I have an idea.”  


The incandescent light bulb works by first producing heat. A mild electrical current is used to heat up a thin wire filament inside the bulb until it glows and makes light. Unfortunately, this is not an energy-efficient process. And the incandescent’s days are now numbered.


In December 2007 Congress passed an energy bill that will phase out the incandescent light bulb by 2014. The phase-out begins with the 100-watt bulb in 2012 and ends with the 40-watt in 2014.


The US is late to this party. Australia became the first country to announce an outright ban by 2010 on incandescent bulbs, and a number of other countries will lose the incandescent bulb far ahead of us. 


Some manufacturers are ending production earlier than the law mandates. IKEA recently began phasing out the bulbs in its North American stores with the intention of eliminating them entirely by January 1, 2011. 


What is a CFL and Why Switch?
According to the EnergyStar site, “In a CFL, an electric current is driven through a tube containing argon and a small amount of mercury vapor. This generates invisible ultraviolet light that excites a fluorescent coating on the inside of the tube… which then emits visible light.” Although a CFL takes a little more energy when it is first turned on, it is much more efficient than an incandescent bulb once the electricity starts flowing.

A CFL uses about 75% less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an equivalent incandescent bulb. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “If every American home replaced just one light with an EnergyStar light, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, about $700 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions of about 800,000 cars.”


The current cost of a CFL is some 3 times higher than that of an incandescent bulb, but a CFL’s long life and its savings on energy more than make up the difference. HINT 1: You’ll maximize the lifetime savings and effectiveness of your CFLs by keeping them on for 15 minutes or more at a time. HINT 2: EnergyStar qualified CFls will turn on in less than 1 second, and reach at least 80% of their full light output within 3 minutes. Some CFLs are labeled “Instant On.” These turn on quicker but do not last as long.


Shop Around
CFLs come in various shapes and sizes. They have different K (Kelvin numbers) and watt ranges. This all a bit beyond the scope of this blog post, but I have found a link that gives some good pointers for choosing a bulb that will make you happy. Probably he best tip in here is the one about matching the lumens of an incandescent you like to the lumens of the CFL you intend to use to replace it. This information should be found on the bulb packaging. You may want to test drive a few different CFLs before buying a large quantity.


This link also predicts that the reign of the CFL will be short and touts the LED (light-emitting diode) as the bulb of the future. While the LED might be an economical choice for tree lights or to focus light while doing a close task, for most of us the current price tag of LEDs is too high to be a ubiquitous home lighting solution. Test out this link as an example.


Exchange for Change
If you live in New Haven, there is an opportunity for you to try CFLs for FREE! The New Haven Office of Sustainability has partnered with the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund to bring a program dubbed “Exchange for Change” to the Elm City. Through Exchange for Change, residents can trade-in 5 incandescents for 5 CFLs at a number of venues around New Haven over the next few weeks. The give-away CFLs are EnergyStar rated, 60 Watt replacements, 900 lumens, with an average life of 10,000 hours. The box claims that you will save $47.00 in energy costs over the life of the bulb. What’s to lose?


When their long life is over, please dispose of your CFLs at a hazardous waste collection center because they do contain mercury. IKEA and Home Depot both have collection boxes inside the store near the entrance. If you live in the New Haven area, and your town is part of the Regional Water Authority, you can bring your defunct CFLs to HazWaste Central on Sargent Drive most Saturday mornings from late May through mid-October.


Centennial Lightbulb
This is a segue I just can’t resist. In the course of my research I learned of “The Longest Burning Lightbulb in History,” installed in the main firehouse in Livermore, California in 1901. It is small, and serves as a nightlight, but one has to wonder how much juice it has used during its 109 years of light. 

ENERGY STAR Explained

 
Phil saw his shadow. Pennsylvania is bracing for snow. It’s February, the month for “Presidents’ Day” appliance sales.

With Presidents’ Day around the corner, it seemed an appropriate time to explain ENERGY STAR ratings. ENERGY STAR was introduced by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) In 1992  as a voluntary labeling program designed to make it easy for consumers to “identify and purchase energy-efficient products that offer savings on energy bills without sacrificing performance, features, and comfort.” Computers and monitors were the first labeled products.

Since 1996, it has been a joint program with the US Department of Energy, and the list of rated products has expanded to include these categories: appliances, computers and electronics, heating and cooling, lighting and fans, plumbing, and building products (including roofing, windows, and insulation).

If you have an appliance over a decade old, chances are you will have significant savings on electricity and water usage if you purchase a new one wisely. And the sales are on!

If you decide to go shopping look for two things:
*  The ENERGY STAR label, awarded only to a product meeting ENERGY STAR specifications.
*  The yellow EnergyGuide label. This tells you how much energy it takes to operate the appliance. Use it to compare the energy use of similar models and estimate annual operating costs.

Many products are eligible for rebates. You can find the ones in your area by clicking your state on this map. With funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Connecticut consumers can get rebates on air conditioners, clothes washers, freezers, and refrigerators. These rebates are in addition to any offered by the manufacturer. If you are on the fence, check this out. Now may be a good time to buy.

Whether or not you shop, do check out the rest of the ENERGY STAR site. It contains a cornucopia of resources including an interactive tool for helping you save energy in your home, a do-It-yourself guide for sealing and insulating, a search area for information on products, and an array of educational materials for kids.

Winter has us in its grip, and we are using lots of energy. What better time to do all we can to save all we can?