Going Green and giving up Lattes

For anyone that has happened upon this post that is not interested in conserving energy, and/or saving money, please click away right now.

Whether one has good arguments about whether there is any kind of energy crisis or not, I think I can get even the most radical resisters-of-change to admit to wanting to save money.

As with any new technology, there are almost always going to be higher initial costs of the product as new infrastructures are built to make the new technology, and to pay for those new infrastructures.

For example, some of the resistance for auto manufacturers to produce more energy efficient cars is due to the retooling necessary to build those cars and the fact old infrastructures have not yet paid for themselves.  That said, transitioning slowly into new technologies is not always a bad thing.  Time allows the bugs to be worked out in new products and allows for a more gentle transition as new factories get rebuilt and old ones are torn down or modified.

One technology we can all get on board with is LED lighting.

The quicker we get on board, the sooner prices will come down.  I have already witnessed a huge drop in the cost of these bulbs since four or five years ago.  I recommend by-passing the entire CFL phase of the transition to more efficient lighting.  They break too easy, have warnings about safety when they are broken and are not dimmable.  While there are dimmable ones made, they are more expensive and they typically require replacement of the wall switches too, which just adds to the cost of the bulbs.  They also are notorious for not lasting nearly as long as claimed.

I just bought a 40 watt equivalent (uses 8 watts) LED bulb the other day for less than 6 bucks.  Speaking of bucks, many people spend more than than in a day at Star-bucks.

Giving up just a few lattes a week can eventually allow you to replace all the bulbs in your home and very quickly you would be able to buy twice as many lattes every week.

Regular incandescent bulbs last anywhere from 750 to 1,000 hours before burning out.  While there are long-life incandescent bulbs that last up to 2,500 hours they are less energy efficient and produce less light per watt. LED bulbs have projected bulb life of 25,000 hours.  There will come a time when light bulbs may not be included with the sale of the home.  Just kidding, but you might want to verify any noted at the time of sale are still there when you move in.

Take a moment to digest the following:

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates rapid adoption of LED lighting over the next 20 years in the United States could save about $265 billion in energy costs and eliminate the construction of 40 new power plants.

That to me is a staggering indictment of the incandescent bulb.

People like to whine how they don’t like the quality of light from LED’s.  Well the truth is the light from LED bulbs is much closer to the quality of natural light than incandescent bulbs have ever been—we are just used to their quality of light.  I for one will not miss them.

For those of you that just insist on the quality of light from incandescents there are now LED’s with lenses designed to mimic incandescents–and many other colors as well.  So the “red light districts” all around the country will not suffer any losses with the elimination of incandescent bulbs.

Another thing about LED’s is that they are dimmable (although they too typically require replacement of switches) and work in any normal fixture just like any incandescent bulb.

LED’s—a level of going green we all can get on board with.

By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

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