It worked!!! One of my goals has been to replace as many incandescent bulbs in my home as possible. Many of my light fixtures are on dimmers, and cfls (compact florescent light bulbs) do not work on dimmers, so I can't change every bulb, but I am doing as many as I can. Last month I put several in key fixtures - this month I replaced the bulbs in my vanity in my bathroom.
And guess what? Hip, Hip Hooray - it worked!!
While the house was on the market, my ex put together a sheet with the estimated utility costs. He said the average electric bill was $52.40 each month. I knew that when I moved in I could do better than that, because I know how the two of us use energy. In the year that we were separated I was living in a tiny apartment where I tried to live as green as possible. I picked up some great routines for conserving energy. Sadly, they didn't make as big of an impact as I had hoped. My first full month of living in the house my bill was $47.22.
Then during July I replaced a few incandescent bulbs with cfls. When I got my bill, I was suitably impressed - my bill was $42.81, for a difference of $4.41. To be honest though, I didn't really think it was due to the cfls, I assumed that it was because I wasn't home as much or something to that effect. But then, I got the bill for August...
The total? $31.16! That is a difference of $11.65!! That's huge!
Now we are going into the long dark months here in Michigan where when you wake up it is dark and when you get out of work - it is still dark. It will be interesting to see if I can keep this trend going. Will I continue to have lower energy prices?
More on cfls:
Comparing Incandescent Light Bulbs to CFL Bulbs
Systematically Replacing Incandescent Bulbs with CFLs - Monthly Goals
The Problem with Installing CFLs in My Home Light Fixtures
EDIT: Here's how my bill is doing after 4 months of slowly switching to CFLs: Electric Bills Even Lower, Thanks to CFLs
Photo by: BottleLeaf
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
CFLs Making a Huge Difference in My Monthly Electric Bill
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5 comments:
Yay! I am really looking forward to having a lower electric bill for the next couple of months since we will be able to open the windows and turn fans on.
Dawn - That is Awesome! So do you not use A/C? I wanted to try and track our increased cfl usage but it is difficult in the summer months.
I remember those long cold Michigan winter's. Looking forward to my first winter season in the south with a lower natural gas bill.
lp - Horray for lower electric bills!! Gotta love them!
PFI - I do use a/c. I didn't try and seperate out the a/c from cfl - and that certainly may make a difference, except that the bills I quoted were from summer months. Now that it is starting to get cool I may see an even bigger difference.
Congratulations on your lowered energy bills. I installed new cfl's and love them too. Every bit helps.
Does the store you purchased the cfl's take them back for recycling?
Hi Scott! I am not sure if they do or not. It is something I am going to have to look into. I am comfortable holding onto the burned out ones (well wrapped up of course) until I have a few and dropping them off at a recycling center if not.
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