How Many Lightbulbs Does It Take to Save the Planet

Whether it’s through recycling our waste, walking and cycling instead of using the car, or limiting the number of times we choose to take air travel, we are all being encouraged to do our bit for the environment.

And yet whilst the majority of the energy saving initiatives we are being encouraged to adopt are good for our wallets in the long run, strangely most of us are reluctant to change our behaviours.

But it doesn’t have to be the major things which will make the difference, such as installing solar panels or wind turbines, ditching the car or turning our back yards into allotments – there are many small things which we can do which will add up to make a big difference overall.

One such example is to switch from using incandescent light bulbs to the newer, energy efficient types. Called compact fluorescents, or CFL, this technology has evolved in leaps and bounds over the last few years, and there is now a huge variety on the market which can be used as direct replacements for the older incandescent types.

No longer do they give inferior quality light, take time to “warm up” or come in ugly, inconvenient shapes, and what’s more, prices have tumbled as retailers look to grab their share of this growing market.

So whilst Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents they use 75% or 80% less electricity.

There are 22.5 million households in the UK, and if every household bought just one CFL bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a town or city of 300 thousand people!

In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 250 thousand cars off the roads!

This is called the law of large numbers – a small action multiplied by, in this case, 22.5 million.

And that’s just a single bulb per household! The average home has anywhere from 25 – 100 individual sockets (go and count the number of bulbs in your house if you don’t believe this…), so just think of the enormous impact we could have on the planet if we would all just act in unison…

UK government legislation aims to take all energy inefficient incandescent bulbs off the retailer’s shelves by 2011 – but why wait, when such a small action can make such a huge difference!

Still need convincing? Take a look at this short video clip about our planet, and the environment that we have created for ourselves… Click here to see the video…

Kind Regards,

Guy Insull,
Founder,
Champions Club

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