ELECTRICITY

Subsidy:
In the 1980s, the US Congress enacted legislation requiring public utilities to set up funds in each state to finance a number of energy conservation measures.  The power companies then contracted with private companies to install high-efficiency lighting in offices, warehouses, and factories. 

For homeowners (and businesses), non-profit firms still promote and supervise free energy audits, and arrange discounts on appliances.  You can buy, at a discount, a name-brand refrigerator or washing machine that uses far less energy than those built as recently as 1995.

You can locate one of these outreach firms through your state’s Energy Conservation office.  You will get the free energy audit, plus information about modern appliances, and a chance to buy a high-efficiency appliance at a substantial discount.

Electric Lights:

A while back, some bad person decided to rate light bulbs in watts.  Watts measure the amount of energy that is put into a light, when we really want to know what we will get out of it.  What we get out is measured in lumens, which used to be called candlepower.  Incidentally, the proper term is lamp, not “light bulb”, but don’t expect us to remember that all of the time. Admittedly, the standard incandescent lamp looks like a bulb.

In a conventional “bulb”, light results when the electricity forces its way through a strip of iron wire (poor conductor) inside the bulb.  The wire tends to resist the flow and, as in a toaster, the filament gets red hot, and glows brightly.  The energy delivered to the lamp is wastefully converted to heat energy, and the incandescent wire glows brightly

Fluorescent Lighting for Tomorrow

The fluorescent lamp most commonly used at home is a glass tube, straight or twisted, with electrical contacts at each end.  The inside of the glass is coated with a phosphorescent material, and the tube is filled with mercury vapor, or some other conductive gas.  When an electric charge goes through the vapor, it excites the phosphor, and the phosphor emits visible light.  This fluorescent lamp has converted the electricity directly to light energy, and there is very little wasteful heat.

Cost Comparison:

In our example, electricity cost $.15 per KWH. There is one reading lamp that is on about three hours each night, at least 300 nights each year.

We could use a typical incandescent bulb that uses 100 watts to put out 1,600 lumens. Or, we could use a fluorescent bulb that uses 25 watts to put out 1,700 lumens.

The incandescent costs $1.25 and lasts about one year. The fluorescent costs $5.00 and is guaranteed for five years.

Comparing costs over five years and 4,500 hours of operation: Bulb cost comes out about the same, but the incandescent cost $67.50 to operate, the fluorescent cost $16.88. The extra $4.00 invested on the first day returned $10.00 each year for the next five years.

That ROI is hard to beat!