DIY Ways To Cut Your Electricity Costs on Lighting

This DIY cut monthly electricity costs article is just the beginning when it comes to easy ways to save you money on your power bills. You and your family could enjoy some new green products or even a small vacation.

The abbreviation CFL stands for Compact Fluorescent Lamp, sometimes known as a circular fluorescent bulb. CFL and incandescent bulbs each generate light in different ways.

Thomas Edison was the inventor of incandescent light bulbs and since his invention the general principle of them is still the same. After electricity is connected to both sides of the carbon filament it gets hot and the outcome is light. Normal fluoro tubes and CFLs have a closed glass tube that has a fluoro coating which glows as current is applied to the mercury vapour and argon inside.

You might’ve heard how the incandescent bulbs work but if you are using the bulb more than a couple of times a year, your money is being wasted, no matter how cheap the bulb was. If you want to save money look for the green products. Compared with an incandescent bulb the newer Energy Star CFL bulbs can save around 75% in costs. A CFL light bulb will save you about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself within 6 months!

There are different choices for the color of the light omitted from the CFL bulbs these days. The mood of the rooms in your house, office or any other rooms can be greatly changed. You can choose CFL colors varying from a warm yellow to a daylight blue. If you like the mood that incandescent light bulbs produce then going for a warmer CFL light would suit you better. Be aware that the daylight or bluer light comes across as very harsh white light and can have negative effects on people that are sensitive to light.

If you look at the package that the bulb comes in it should have K for Kelvin rating, which gives you the “temperature” of the bulb. If you see a K rating of 2700K-3000K you will be getting a warm/yellow bulb. A cool white bulb would be a Kelvin rating of 3500K-4100K. And a Daylight blue bulb is a rating of 5000K-6500K.

Use 9-13 watt CFL bulbs if you want to replace 40 watt incandescent bulbs. For a 60 watt incandescent bulb use a 13-15 watt CFL. For a 75 watt incandescent use an 18-25 watt CFL. And look for the 23-30 watt CFLs if you want to replace 100 watt incandescent bulbs.

Please remember to recycle all compact fluorescent bulbs. In some states disposing of mercury filled bulbs with solid waste rubbish is illegal. Thats because in one CFL there is about 5 milligrams of mercury.

Places such as ACE Hardware, Orchard (OSH), IKEA and Home Depot will take your used green CFL products and dispose of them responsibly.

If you are wanting decorative lights, consider Energy Star qualified light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. These LEDs use up to 90% less energy than the same incandescent bulbs to produce exactly the same amount of light! It takes the same amount of energy to power up one 7 watt incandescent bulb as it does to power up to 140 LEDs!

Give the CFLs a try for inside and the LEDs for the outside. They will save you some good money and reduce your carbon footprint.