Wellness Wednesday: BFFs & LEDs
Wellness Wednesday has surprisingly been a challenge for me.
I thought it would be easy to make the link between personal wellness and
happenings in the clean energy world because, to me, the two are so closely
tied together; however, it seems that it is not a widely publicized topic. Good
and bad. Good because I feel like we can pave the way in exploring this topic and
bad because it requires that extra bit of research on my end! With that being
said, I encourage you to send any ‘Wellness Wednesday’ ideas to me at mhoff@pesc.com - I want to make sure I am
addressing what interests our readers! In the meantime, you will have to hear a
lot about my personal life adventure of buying and greening my home.
Energy Savings over 50,000 hours, assuming 25 bulbs per household:
…
Meet my BFF, IKEA.
She’s modern. She’s hip. Yep, she’s my Best
Frugal Find and she’s into energy
efficiency. It’s like we were meant to be. I just wish she lived a tad bit
closer but thank goodness for the Internet because we are able to keep in
touch!
Okay, yes. I have lost
my mind but to be fair I am drafting this blog on a misty, October Friday
when all I can think about is organic hot chocolate, curling up next to the
fireplace, and listening to Celine Dion (note to editor: do not remove this
Celine reference - I like her and I am not ashamed). Note from editor: I am ashamed for you.
Back to IKEA. A recent
article let me know that my BFF has a goal to sell only LED lamps and bulbs
by 2016. Like Oprah, she really wants people to live their best life and feels
that saving energy, slicing utility bills, and cutting carbon emissions are a
big piece of that pie. IKEA as a company is strongly committed to being a
leader when it comes to energy efficiency – check out the page
on Climate Change. I too like to lead by example and feel that as a new
home owner it is important to do my part in making my space energy efficient to
not only put money back in my pocket but to protect our environment for
generations to come.
‘If all IKEA customers
around the world took out one traditional light bulb and replaced it with a new
LED bulb that would save enough energy to power up a city with one million
people.’ – James Futcher, IKEA Product Developer
Energy efficiency is easy and can be cheap thanks to
no-cost, low-cost fixes and BFFs like IKEA. Just one bulb per household?! Come
on, I think we can all do better than that. I know I plan to. Besides cutting
down on greenhouse gas emissions, LEDs also cut down on exposure to toxic
substances because they are mercury free, unlike traditional incandescent or
compact fluorescent bulbs. Sure LEDs still cost more upfront, but thanks to a
long life and companies like IKEA LEDs will most definitely save you in the
long run.
LED
|
CFL
|
Incandescent
|
|
Light bulb projected
lifespan
|
50,000 hours
|
10,000 hours
|
1,200 hours
|
Watts per bulb (equiv.
60 watts)
|
10
|
14
|
60
|
Cost per bulb
|
$35.95
|
$3.95
|
$1.25
|
KWh of electricity
used over
50,000 hours |
300 500
|
700
|
3000
|
Cost of electricity (@
0.10per KWh)
|
$50
|
$70
|
$300
|
Bulbs needed for 50k
hours of use
|
1
|
5
|
42
|
Equivalent 50k hours
bulb expense
|
$35.95
|
$19.75
|
$52.50
|
Total cost for 50k
hours
|
$85.75
|
$89.75
|
$352.50
|
Energy Savings over 50,000 hours, assuming 25 bulbs per household:
Total cost for 25
bulbs
|
$2143.75
|
$2243.75
|
$8812.50
|
Savings to household
by switching
from incandescents |
$6668.75
|
$6568.75
|
0
|
Healthy wallet, healthy home, healthy planet - just another
win on this Wellness Wednesday.
photo credit: slimmer_jimmer via photopin cc
photo credit: slimmer_jimmer via photopin cc