[Note: This is part of a webwide series of blog posts about compact fluorescent light bulbs. January is the darkest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. To fight off the darkness, bloggers everywhere are invited to create a post with their own riff on why CF bulbs are cheaper, better politically, harder to market or just plain cute. I heard about this project from the remarkable Seth Godin.]
My riff on compact fluorescent bulbs? Yeah, I’ve replaced all of the standard bulbs in my house with energy-saving CF bulbs. Yeah, I did it after I saw An Inconvenient Truth. Yeah, I tried to spread the good word by giving CF bulbs as stocking-stuffers to friends and family this holiday season. I disclose this up front just to be clear: I am the demographic. I would be labeled as a “tree hugger.”
But last week something interesting happened. Wal-Mart announced their commitment to selling more compact fluorescent bulbs. The full disclosure here: I am the last person that would pay Wal-Mart any kind of a compliment (I won’t go into it – everyone knows why and most dislike them for the same reasons). But with their “Change a Light. Change the World.” campaign they are helping to educate the masses (which they certainly have access to) on the big difference these little bulbs can make. Plus you can’t argue with the marketing behind that campaign slogan. Sums it up pretty good.
A great part of the Wal-Mart story is that they are so committed to this that they are moving faster than CF bulb manufacturers like GE and Phillips, who aren’t ready for a ramp up of this scale (think if your major distributor proposed that users switch from your cash cow to your niche product that lasts several times longer).
For those who don’t know, here’s the executive summary. Compact Fluorescent Bulbs …
- Use at least 2/3 less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, and last up to 10 times longer.
- Save $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb’s lifetime
- Generate 70 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
For more info, check out the CF Bulb page on the government’s Energy Star site.
My first observation is – damnit it just makes sense! In the unlikely event that everything else turns out to be wrong – what do you have to loose by switching?
Second, if the logic above defies you, then go with them because they’re cheaper. If serving the greater good doesn’t motivate you, how about your inner-miser? You could save $30 per year, per standard bulb replaced. And the things last up to five years! More on the full disclosure front – my inner miser is as vocal as a my inner environmentalist. So the $$$ did help sway me.
Finally, if none of that (PUN ALERT) flips your switch, it should majorly freak you out that Al Gore and Wal-Mart are on the same side of an issue. What are you waiting for? The four horseman of the apocalypse? All kidding aside, I think it’s safe to say that this product – which has been around for nearly 30 years – is finally tipping.
The Point? I think it’s pretty clear but … replace a bulb. Just one. Give it a shot. If you like it, go through and replace the rest. If every American home replaced just one standard light bulb with a CF bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.
