Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Earning the Government's ENERGY STAR

• ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs:
• ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.
• Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime.
• Produce about 75 percent less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
• Are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors.

How to Choose and Where to Use CFLs:

ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs provide the greatest savings in fixtures that are on for a substantial amount of time each day. At a minimum, ENERGY STAR recommends installing qualified CFLs in fixtures that are used at least 15 minutes at a time or several hours per day. The best fixtures to use qualified CFLs in are usually found in the following areas of your home:

• family and living rooms
• kitchen
• dining room
• bedrooms
• outdoors

How to Choose the Right Light:

Matching the right CFL to the right kind of fixture helps ensure that it will perform properly and last a long time.

For example:

• CFLs perform best in open fixtures that allow airflow, such as table and floor lamps, wall sconces, pendants, and outdoor fixtures.
• For recessed fixtures, it is better to use a reflector CFL than a spiral CFL since the design of the reflector evenly distributes the light down to your task area.
• If a light fixture is connected to a dimmer or three-way switch, you'll need to use a special ENERGY STAR qualified CFL designed to work in these applications. Make sure to look for CFLs that specify use with dimmers or three-way fixtures.
• Choose a qualified CFL that offers a shade of white light that works best for you. For example, while most CFLs provide warm or soft white light for your home, you could choose a cooler color for task lighting.
• To choose the ENERGY STAR qualified CFL with the right amount of light, find a qualified CFL that is labeled as equivalent to the incandescent bulb you are replacing. Light bulb manufacturers include this information right on the product packaging to make it easy for consumers to choose the equivalent bulb. Common terms include "Soft White 60" or "60 Watt Replacement."
• You should also check the lumen rating to find the right CFL. The higher the lumen rating, the greater the light output. Consult the following chart to determine what CFL wattage is best to replace your incandescent light bulb

Check out energystar.gov for more information the ENERGY STAR Programs. Click here

Cost Saving Benefits

Regular incandescent light bulbs are very inefficient.  In fact, over half the energy consumed by an incandescent light bulb produces heat, not light.  Compact fluorescent light bulbs are more efficient than incandescent bulbs.  A CFL bulbs typically uses 65%-75% less energy than a standard incandescent bulb to provide the same amount of light.  Another benefit of CFL bulbs is that they last up to 10 times longer than a regular light bulb. 

Although the up-front cost of a CFL bulb is typically higher than a standard incandescent bulb, the cost savings over the life of the bulb can be striking.  Let's take a concrete example.  Suppose you replace one 100 watt standard incandescent bulb with a 28 watt CFL bulb that produces the same amount of light.  Assume also that:

• the CFL bulb costs $5.00 and lasts 10,000 hours
• a standard incandescent bulb cost $0.75 and lasts 1,000 hours (therefore 10 standard bulbs are required to last as long as the one CFL bulb).
• the cost of electricity in your area is $0.12/kWh

The costs break down as follows:

So think about it.  By replacing one light bulb, you could save $88.90 over the life of that bulb.  If you replace more bulbs, your savings could be even greater.

It's also important to note that in some areas of the U.S., notably the North East, the cost of electricity to consumers is closer to $0.17 - $0.20/kWh.

Finally, don't forget the heat.  Given that standard incandescent bulbs throw off most of their energy as heat, your home cooling costs in the summer increase in order to offset the heat generated by your standard incandescent light bulbs.

Environmental Benefits

Over half of the electricity in the U.S. is generated by coal-fired power plants.  The abundance of coal in the U.S. makes it one of the cheapest energy sources for power plants.  The problem is that in addition to generating cheap electricity, coal-fired power plants also release massive amounts of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas linked to global warming.

By replacing a few incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs, you have an important role to play in the fight against global warming.  Let's work backwards:

          If you replace incandescent light bulbs with CFL light bulbs....
              ....then you'll consume less electricity
                  .....then less coal-based power will have to be generated to meet your demand
                       ....then less coal will be burned
                           ....then less greenhouse gas will be released into the atmosphere