A bright way to cut your power bill

Compact fluorescent light bulbs cost more off the shelf, but they'll save you money and time in the long run, and help the planet. Here's how the math pencils out.

I regularly mention using compact fluorescent lights for the home, but I haven't laid out the entire case for CFLs in one place before. It's time to change that.

Below are five huge reasons why you should switch your home light bulbs to CFLs today. (Even if you already use CFLs, you may want to read this list. There's something on it for you, too.)

For this exercise, I'm going to refer to a six-pack of General Electric 26-watt CFLs, which you can get from Walmart.com for $15.16, giving them a cost of $2.53 a bulb. These bulbs claim 100-watt equivalence, but I actually find their brightness to be between that of a 75-watt and a 100-watt incandescent bulb, so we'll compare them to 75-watt bulbs. For comparison's sake, a four-pack of GE's 75-watt incandescents at Amazon.com is $4.10, or $1.03 a bulb.

1. The bulbs themselves are cheaper.
2. The per-hour cost of energy for CFLs is cheaper.
3. The time involved is less.
4. They cut carbon emissions.
5. You can save $1 on a GE CFL during July 2007.

Article by: The Simple Dollar
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