Lighting the Way
The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that a new light bulb is attracting the interest of California lawmakers who are considering a ban on the sale of old-fashioned incandescent bulbs as of 2012.
A similar piece of legislation has also been introduced in Australia.
Acording to a UPI news story, both energy experts and environmentalists love the "stubby, squiggly fluorescent bulbs" and that the switch to the low-energy long-lasting compact fluorescent bulb would slash electricity consumption by a whopping 75 percent.
The author of the bill is state Assemblyman Lloyd Levine of Van Nuys, who called the act of banning the bulb a "simple idea." "When you're running short of power, one thing you can do is find a way to make that energy go farther," he told the Times.
Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, is throwing its hefty weight behind the new bulbs and have urged their millions of customers to purchase one or two for starters.
Costs will be realized over the life of the new bulb, which can last 10 times as long as the incandescent kind. However, the new fluorescent bulbs are pricier than traditional incandescent bulbs.
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Comments (5)
I have been using these for years. Though hardly new a 15 watt compact flourescent equals a 75 watt incandescent. I would price compare because you can pay as much as $6.00 a bulb. I just bought an entire case of 24 at a thrift shop in Ventura that was donated by Edison for $.99 each. They had a stack of cases. I can'r remeber the name, but it was the large thrift store on the right as you head into downtown Ventura.
Another thing to consider is the health ramifications. If you have it in your budget, buy the full spectrum compact flourescents. It has been shown that normal flourescent bulbs radiate a lot of blue color spectrum and impacts the immune system negatively. Full spectrum bulbs, whether incandescent or flourescent, have a balanced color output, similar to the sun, and thus don't create any hypo-conditions in the body.
Comment #1 Posted by: Raymond | February 25, 2007 10:12 AM
The Ojai Valley Green Coalition is exploring various ways to work towards moving Ojai towards a "model green community". One possibility is free compact fluorescents from Edison as part of an awareness campaign.
nice suggestions, Raymond.
Comment #2 Posted by: Tyler | February 25, 2007 01:33 PM
The LED lights are even more efficiant as far as using less power. They are quite a bit more expensive but they give off a more natural light, similar to sunlight. This is a good way to reduce our power consumption until we can start building new nuclear power plants here in California.
Comment #3 Posted by: Brian | February 25, 2007 02:27 PM
Here we go again. Nuclear Power is a non-starter. Try this fact on for size: some years ago a coalition of state agencies and power utilities asked the people of California to conserve energy. We responded by cutting per capita power consumption by a whopping 60%! This was done on the basis of one campaign with a couple of print/radio and tv commercials. That's where is stands today with respect to the rest of the United States. California uses 60% less power per capita than the rest of the country. Instead of building more power plants, why don't we just get the rest of the states to join California in the extremely moderate conservation methods we currently employ. We'd drop the power usage by the whole country by at least 50%!
Comment #4 Posted by: spk | February 25, 2007 05:30 PM
Sean,
California needs an additional 1000 megawatts a year just to keep up with our growing population and expanding economy. Now I know you don't want the population to expand or our economy to grow but it a fact. I would have to take issue with your statement that California cut it's power consumption by 60%. These statistics do not seem to bare that out:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/historic_peak_demand.html
And remember, honey is a high energy product so I know what I'm talking about!
Comment #5 Posted by: Brian | February 25, 2007 06:20 PM