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Christine's Blog: Switching to Fluorescent Light Bulbs (4/23/07)
Christine talks about making the switch from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Hello Everyone,
Yesterday was World Earth Day and you couldn't help but notice all of the energy efficient, low-carbon suggestions for what you can do for a better environment.
While watching the Discover Channel series Planet Earth and Friday's episode of Oprah (I Tivo it), I couldn't help but think about what I could do in my vacation rental homes to make them more environmentally friendly.
| I personally was an early adopter of the energy efficient movement. Around 15 years ago, we took some measures to make our 100-year-old home more energy efficient. I have to confess, we were only being partly environmentally conscious-- a big motivator for us was the cost savings to our energy bills. The beautiful, 100-year-old house, which was nicely situated on the Irondequoit bay (Part of Lake Ontario), had a lot of charm, but no insulation—literally, the walls were filled with crumpled up newspaper. |
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So we had an energy audit and found a bunch of things that we could do to ease our energy consumption. Among some major changes, we insulated all of our electric receptacles (plugs), installed low water consumption toilets, faucets and shower heads (my husband hated these-- admittedly, they don't allow for a nice strong shower), and replaced all of our light bulbs with florescent lights.
Back then, the florescent light bulbs flickered/flashed when you turned them on, emitted greenish light, and had a distinctive buzzing sound, and stuck out about 3 inches higher than a traditional incandescent light bulb. Besides all of that, the bulbs were very expensive, running around $25 a piece. Needless to say, we hated them and ended up ditching them and switching back to incandescent bulbs.
This past summer we moved into our new house and each morning as the sun shined into my bathroom as I was blow drying my hair and putting on my make-up, I was sweating bullets! I tried to figure out ways to eliminate or at least reduce a lot of the heat in the bathroom. I installed a ceiling fan and high efficiency blinds, but neither seemed to make any noticeable change in temperature. We figured that the culprit was the lights above my vanity, which emitted a lot of heat. On a trip to Costco one day, I noticed that they had a multi-pack “compact” florescent light bulbs (CFL's) and I decided to give them a try again. I was pleasantly surprised with the improvement of the bulbs over the past 15 years. No more strobe-light show when turned on! In addition to their smaller size, they now emit a soft-white light similar to a traditional incandescent bulb. But most importantly they made my bathroom much cooler!
So as one little thing that you can do for World Earth Day, I strongly suggest investing in florescent light bulbs.
Happy Renting By Owner!
Christine
If you're interested in hearing Christine speak at one of her upcoming seminars, visit the Seminar Schedule for more information.
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