Admin, Articles by Topic, Construction, DIY, Electrical, Featured Post, Front Page Feed, General, Green News, Home Improvement, Home Staging, Inspections, Insurance, Mortgages, Selling Your Home, Staging, Title & Escrow
CFL Bulbs, Why and How to Recycle
May 3, 2011 by reeis · Leave a Comment
In my profession, one of the most common questions that I get is do CFL bulbs really make that much of a difference and why should I switch? This can be looked at in many different ways but here are some points that I feel are key.
- Saves 40.00 in electricity costs over its lifetime
- Uses 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs and lasts ten times longer
- Produces 75% less heat
The important thing is to recognize where to install them to get these benefits. It’s recommended to install them in heavy traffic areas such as the kitchen, living room and recreational rooms. Also, to make them the most effective they should be left on for a minimum of 10 minutes as frequent turning off and on will shorten their life span. Typically a CFL bulb costs 5.00 and lasts 10,000 hours whereas, the cost of a regular incandescent bulb is in the area of 0.75 and lasts 1,000 hours. Over time, you will save some money on buying the bulbs but also the energy savings as well. If you aren’t convinced yet, then maybe our friends at Energy Star can help because this is staggering, “If every American home replaced just one light with a light that’s earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year, save about $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to those from about 800,000 cars.”
Finally, one of the most important things to remember is how to recycle them because they do contain a little bit of mercury. First and foremost, don’t put them in your regular trash can instead take them to Home Depot of you can use this friendly website to locate a place near you. www.earth911.org Another fantastic site that can help with safe containers for recycling in the home, office or commercial sites is personal friends of mine at www.buschsystems.com