Back again, and a day late! Curses! Anyhow, after a little brain cramp I came up with today's topic, which will be split into two parts for this week and next week. Our 100% organic, no-preservatives topic today is: saving energy around the house!
LIGHTING: A LIFE'S PERPETUAL BANE
Lighting in the most earth friendly fashion comes off as a more complicated issue than it should be. First, people tell you to turn on your lights, while others say leave 'em on, then people argue about whether or not you should use compact fluorescent bulbs, so on and so forth, ad infinitum. It's probably not a very good idea not to do anything about your lighting situation at home because it's too difficult to get everything figured out, so I'm going to do a little favor and try to straighten everything out a bit.
If you're paying the electricity bill, the lighting around your house is probably causing your paycheck a little more pain than it's due. That's one very good reason to make your lighting a bit more energy efficient--because every time you waste energy, you waste money. So saving a little electricity never hurt anyone but the electric company! With a little resolve and a little investment, saving tons of energy on your lighting can be very easy.
The first tip is a rule of thumb: if you're not in a room, please, please, please turn your lights off! Turning on your lights only uses half a minute's worth of energy, so unless you're just popping out of the room for a few seconds it's a good idea to turn out the lights. This is a big energy saver, especially with incandescent light bulbs. Also, make good use of daylight if you can. If you can see well enough by it, remember it's free and turn off the lamp.
My next tip is to switch out your incandescent light bulbs for some much more efficient alternatives. The alternative I'm most familiar with are compact fluorescent bulbs, which have both their pros and cons, although I'm willing to side with fluorescents over incandescent bulbs any day. The good news about fluorescent bulbs is that their wattage is about a fourth to a fifth as much as an incandescent bulb for the amount of light given off. This is great news for your electricity costs, because that means that you're using a fraction of the energy as incandescent bulbs for the same light. Also, fluorescents last much longer than incandescent bulbs--usually about 15000 hours for each bulb, eight to fifteen times longer than incandescent bulbs. They fit in all the same sockets as regular incandescent bulbs, too. Another pro that I find nice is that they generate much less heat than incandescent bulbs, usually only getting a bit warm whereas incandescent bulbs can give you some pretty nasty burns if you accidentally hold on to one. Also, this keeps your house a bit cooler and probably evens out the temperatures around the house, keeping your air conditioner costs down too.
On the other hand, fluorescent bulbs undeniably have their cons. At low temperatures (near freezing) they tend to dim, and below freezing they often do not light at all, so as an outdoor light they are not always the best solution. Also--one of the more controversial issues--all fluorescent bulbs use small amounts of mercury. However, according to the lifespan of fluorescent bulbs, they overall use much less mercury in their production and in content than the mercury emissions created in the making of incandescent bulbs. The mercury is more of an issue in disposal; to safely dispose of these bulbs, it is necessary to dispose of them according to local guidelines, or to take them to a recycling plant where the mercury can be either recycled or disposed of. Fluorescent bulbs are much more expensive, although not unreasonably so, and the energy saved and lifetime of the bulb make up for the initial expense. One tiny annoyance with CF bulbs is that they take a little bit of time to reach their full brightness, which can range from a few seconds for a high quality bulb to a minute or so for the cheapest quality bulbs. This means that you should judge carefully whether or not you really need a fluorescent bulb in an area according to its cost and how long you spend in the area. For example, you might want to opt for a cheap incandescent bulb for your closet light if the most you do is pop in and pop out for a minute or two.
Another alternative which is not as practical now but is expected to quickly become the most practical lighting solution in the next two decades or so are LED lamps (SSLs). These lamps use even less electricity than CF bulbs, have a much longer life, can be made in a greater array of shapes, and do not have the mercury hazards of CF bulbs or the delay associated with them. They should also be a little cheaper than CF bulbs when they are fully developed. There are some LED bulbs on the market now, but at the moment they do not deliver the same results as CF bulbs and cost much more. However, car manufacturers sometimes use LED headlights (you'll notice them--they're a white-blue color versus the traditional soft yellow) and there are LED flashlights and booklights available that deliver longer battery life and durability. LED lights are something to watch as they are developed.
Some other solutions to look into--if you're working on building construction or are about to build a new house, you may consider using light tubes. Light tubes basically redirect light from the sun and bring it into a room. Also, this does not allow as much heat to be generated as that that comes from a window. We have a couple of these lighting our office, and even though it's been cloudy all month I haven't really been at a loss for light. On a sunny day, the room is lit as if by fluorescent tubes, and on a cloudy day the room is dimly but sufficiently lit. There are obviously no energy costs associated, and from my experience I rather like the little lights. Lights using passive solar energy (meaning they don't get converted to electricity, as is the case with solar cells), such as these light tubes, are definitely interesting, and I need to do a little more research on them. You never know what you may find--for example, I've seen plenty of little tidbits about using fiber optics to transmit solar energy passively, a very interesting solution.
Inevitably, how to light your home is going to be a very varied subject with plenty of different solutions. However, if you pick one and stick to it, it will most likely save you energy and money to light your home and is well worth the effort in switching over.
And on next week's post--water and air conditioning! Look forward to it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I recently blogged about compact fluorescent lamps at my site on global warming. I found that they are not the great deal that everyone says they are. They poison the ground with mercury if not recycled correctly and when you add up all of the costs of production and recycling, they actually use more energy than incandescent bulbs. I don't want to go into a great deal of detail here but you can read my post at http://globalwarming-factorfiction.com/2007/07/18/compact-fluorescent-lamps/
It really depends--I tried to find some statistics on how much energy was required to manufacture incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs, but failed miserably for the moment. However, if you assume that the average CF bulb lasts 10 times longer than the average incandescent bulb, then in order for the manufacturing of incandescent bulbs to be even as efficient as fluorescent bulbs then they would have to consume ten times less energy in production. Even if this is true (which is what I was trying to discern), the difference of manufacturing energy and disposal energy adjusted for lifespan would still have to make up for the energy saved during use.
Also, use of fluorescent versus incandescent bulbs in relation to disposal costs is sort of a difficult argument to make. The effect of mercury in fluorescent bulbs on the environment is up to the responsibility of the user and efficiency of the recycling process. Now, I know that the average person can't really be relied on to recycle the CF bulbs, but hopefully with a bit of education as well as rise in popularity of these bulbs, getting in the habit of recycling these bulbs shouldn't be too hard.
I won't say that CFs are a cure all, but I think that they have too much promise to dismiss them as an alternative to incandescent light bulbs. If you want to go all out and really cut down on the energy you use and pollution you create, then you should look into a different solution; but for the average person that wants to make at least a little effort, CFs are a good starting point.
Another thing to remember is that CF bulbs are most likely not a huge contributor to the current mercury pollution from fluorescent bulbs because the regular fluorescent tubes such as those used in businesses, offices, schools, etc. Their use and improper disposal probably account for a vast majority of mercury pollution due to fluorescent lamps. Also, these lamps have been used much longer than their compact equivalents--in mass production since 1938. A lack of education about proper disposal of these bulbs causes a much larger impact than CF bulbs.
Post a Comment