Pretty soon it will be illegal to produce and sell incandescent light bulbs in Canada. Their replacement? The energy saver bulb. A 13 watt energy saver light bulb is equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent. What does this mean? Well, up to 78% savings on the lighting portion of your electricity costs. Which in turn, leads to less demand on our energy grid. Now imagine how much energy would be saved if everyone switched? And less energy demand means less harm to our environment from the coal-fired energy plants.
Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? It really is. However, there is quite a price point difference to switch over. For your average 2 pack of incandescent bulbs, you are looking at around $1.98. For your average 2 pack of energy saver light bulbs, you are looking at $9.98. So, five times the cost to be environmentally responsible. If you are looking to outfit your home with these new bulbs, it would cost the average homeowner over $100 depending on your lighting situation. Seems like quite the investment (penalty?) to be environmentally responsible (take a look at my entry about hybrid vehicles as well).
I think they should really lower the price of the light bulbs to encourage everyone at every income level to replace their old bulbs. If not, unfortunately, those on a tight budget may be compelled to stockpile the cheaper, energy hungry incandescent, before the lights go out on them and they are yanked from the shelves for good.
2 comments:
removed and edited for proof-reading puposes, lol:
Another thing that should be taken into serious consideration is the murcury that is contained in the "efficient" lighbulb, something a lot of people are unaware of. Granted, there is hardly enough PER bulb to cause anyone any serious harm, however considering the fact that a law is going to pass making EVERYONE buy the bulbs - that's a HUGE increase in those tiny murcury levels.
Preparations need to be made asap for safe disposal of all the used bulbs...they cannot simply be dumped in landfills. How will that effect the environment in itself? how will regulations be monitored?
It's funny you said that...I was going to buy some of the bulbs last week and I saw the same thing - mercury - and it turned me right away from buying them. That can't be good. I'm going to look more into it and do a follow-up post!
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