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Power$martLight Up Your Life

Savvy Consumer: Power$mart--Light Up Your Life
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Enlightening Comparisons 

Here’s a simple comparison for two types of bulbs giving off the same amount of light and burning for four hours per day for three years (4,380 hours). You’ll go through six incandescent bulbs during this period, while the compact fluorescent will still have another 3.8 years of life left.

INCANDESCENT vs. COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULB

Bulb Type

100W Incandescent

23W Compact Fluorescent

Purchase Price $0.75 $11.00
Life of the Bulb 750 hours 10,000 hours
Number of Hours Burned per Day 4 hours 4 hours
Number of Bulbs Needed  about 6 over 3 years 1 over 6.8 years
Total Cost of Bulbs $4.50 $11.00
Lumens 1,690 1,500
Total Cost of Electricity (8 cents/kilowatt-hour) $35.04 $8.06
Your Total Cost over 3 years $39.54 $19.06

 

Total Savings over three years with the Compact Fluorescent: $20.50

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration

It’s A Fact

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bulb or fixture with an Energy Star qualified model, we could save more than 8 billion kWh--equivalent to removing 1 million cars from the road per year!

Illustration of boy and lampEnergy Consciousness Tips

Let “Mother Nature” light your home. Sunlight is brighter than a multitude of light bulbs, and it’s free.
Don’t like coming home to a dark house? Instead of leaving lights on, put timers on a few of the lights in your home, or install motion detectors on exterior flood lights to improve your home security. After you get inside, the sensor will “remember” to turn the lights off.

 

ENLIGHTENING WARNING! 

Halogen torchiere lamps have grown in popularity. Although relatively inexpensive to purchase, they are expensive to operate and very inefficient. The halogen bulbs in these lamps operate at temperatures much hotter than regular bulbs and can CAUSE FIRES, warns the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Consider a safe Energy Star torchiere.

 


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