When I moved into my home a year and a half ago it was a big change. The old house was 900 square feet; this one is 1,800. The old house had 5 decent windows; this one has 17 single pane.
I would have loved to have replaced the windows right away, but didn’t want to go into more debt than I was in to do so. One thing I could do, though, was replace all of the 60-Watt light bulbs with 13 and 9-Watt flourescents.
Is it Worth it to Change Light Bulbs That Work?
Some home owners might be deterred from shelling out the bucks to replace all of their light bulbs. I know I was. My house has 33 in total.
Purchased in packs of 4 from Lowe’s, they cost $14 each, bringing my up front cost to $126 plus tax. While the cost is high at first, a 13-Watt bulb uses less than 25% of the energy that incandescent bulbs use at 60 Watts. In addition to this, consumer advocate Clark Howard has discussed on his radio show that older bulbs burn up a lot of energy simply emitting heat.
In addition to energy savings on a daily basis, they burn about 6-8 times longer than incandescent bulbs.
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What are the Energy Savings for Switching?
After I switched all of the bulbs, I noticed that the next full month saved me about $30, or $1/bulb/month. I got my money back in less than half a year, giving me a 200%+ return each year.
In terms of replacing the bulbs, you can add another $.75 each year, because the cost of replacing a $1 incandesecent bulb will be foregone 3 of every 4 years, bringing my personal annual savings to about $380 a year.
This is a very lucrative means of energy savings because, unlike solar panels, which can take up to a decade to pay for themselves, these pay for themselves more than twice a year.
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