My wife and I are in our 80’s and we cannot afford many of these energy saving tips you write about. We have insulated our pipes and have hired an air conditioning company to perform quarterly maintenance on our heating and air conditioning unit which has helped with our bills. We want to change out all of our regular light bulbs now and would appreciate some input as to comparison facts.

Lighting is one of the most noticeable and able to be seen ways in your home you can make use of energy savings. Although a lone solo light bulb does not use much energy, combined, all light bulbs in a home can account for a minimum of 15-20% of the electricity bill. One of the easiest ways to help lower electricity expenses is to replace incandescent bulbs with energy saving light bulbs. With such vast improvements in the energy-saving bulb market, now every incandescent bulb now has an equivalent that is energy-saving.

Both incandescent and energy saving light bulbs are rated by the watts used and the amount of light output, which is called lumens. 

Incandescent bulbs are lighted by electricity that is sent through to the thin filament inside the bulb which creates heat and when the heat is produced, then light is created. 

An energy efficient bulb is lighted by electricity being sent into a “tube” where a collision, smash and impact of electrons with mercury vapor takes place and produces an ultra-violet light. This ultra-violet light reacts with the phosphorous coating inside the tube and light is created. Below is a chart of basic comparisons:

ENERGY-SAVING BULB		INCANDESCENT BULB
13 watts	WATTAGE	60 watts
8,000 hours	LIFESPAN	750 hours
$3.50	EST. COST OF BULB	50 cents
$2.00	ANNUAL ENERGY COST	$11.00
28 kWh	ANNUAL ENERGY USE	131 kWh

There are many varieties of sizes, shapes and wattages of energy-saving bulbs for practically every type of home and office use; household lamps, ceiling fixtures, appliances, track lighting, holiday lighting, outdoor flood lights, decorative and so many more. It is indeed a battle of the bulbs. I just counted the light fixtures in my home, inside and out and I have 70 light bulbs. That is 70 ways to save and almost all of the bulbs, even the decorative ceiling fan bulbs and stove top light have been converted to energy efficient lighting. It is suggested to start out by changing the lighting that is used the most, this way you do not have a major expense.