Give CFLs A Chance

To the Editor:

To last week’s letter writer Frank McDermott [“Feeling Good And Green”] and to everyone who is considering switching from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lights but hasn’t done so yet: give CFLs a chance.

I never pay more than $1 for a CFL, sold in multipacks at stores like Home Depot. The bulbs are typically rated to last 10,000 hours, more than six years at four hours per day; I’ve had a few CFLs fail prematurely, but most of mine really do last for many years. Incandescent bulbs can be purchased that are less expensive, but they are typically rated to last around 1,000 hours; considering the frequency with which I used to replace incandescent bulbs, I suspect many never even lasted that long. In any case, based on bulb prices alone, CFLs make sense.

But the savings really mount up with reduced electricity consumption. For 10,000 hours of lighting from 100-watt incandescent bulbs, at the 20 cents per kilowatt hour we are charged for electricity in Connecticut, I would pay $200. I can get the same amount of light from a 27-watt CFL for $54: I save $146.

Try guessing how many bulbs you have in your home, then go and do an actual count, or assign the project to your kids: you, and the kids, may be as surprised as I was. Estimate how many are on at any one time and you see that savings quickly become substantial. Put the kids on the math.

CFLs do contain small amounts of mercury, just like all the fluorescent bulbs that we have taken for granted for as long as most of us can remember. It gets interesting, however, once one understands that Connecticut uses coal to generate some of its electricity, and that mercury is released in the process: so CFLs, improperly disposed of, release mercury into the environment, but while in use they help to reduce the release of mercury from coal. CFLs should be saved up for hazardous waste collection days. Some retailers have begun accepting used CFLs.

So it’s win-win-win. I reduce my energy consumption at the same time that I save money two ways.      

Jim Greenwood

10 Elm Drive, Newtown                                   October 29, 2007