Living Like Ed - (Page 40) home office, I bought in the early 1990s . . . and they’re still burning. They save an incredible amount of energy and money. The State of California and several European countries are considering passing legislation to outlaw incandescent bulbs and make the use of CFLs mandatory. People have asked me if I would support that legislation. Not only would I support it, I would lobby for it. Here’s the bottom line on compact fluorescent lightbulbs: • CFLs use two-thirds less energy than standard incandescent lightbulbs, yet they provide the same amount of light. A CFL may draw just 18 watts of power, but it puts out 60 watts’ worth of light. • The average CFL lasts nine times longer than a normal bulb—most people say they’re going to last ten years, and I’ve got some that have lasted as long as sixteen or seventeen years. Ed • Each CFL saves at least $30 in energy costs over its lifetime vs. a generate 70 percent less heat than regular bulbs, making them regular lightbulb. • CFLs 40 safer to operate and keeping your home cooler in the summer months. • If every American home replaced just one standard lightbulb with a CFL, living like it would reduce greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars. And here’s great news: Even if money is really tight, you can still switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. You can get them for free from a utility like the Department of Water and Power, like Pacific Gas and Electric, like Southern California Edison, like Con Ed. A lot of these utilities will give you compact fluorescent bulbs because they’ve discovered that it’s cheaper for them. The cheapest kilowatts they can produce these days are kilowatts saved. It’s very, very difficult to Upgrade Your site and build a new power Lightbulbs plant—all the expense, all the red COST: from $5 tape involved, the environmental apiece review. And the fuel sources are natural gas and coal. What’s the insulation need recycled newsprint to make their product, they are creating a demand for
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