May Green Tip

Even though those wonderful little LED (light­emitting diode) bulbs are still quite expensive, the prices are coming down.  (I heard Lowe’s has them for $9.98!)  Outfitting your entire house might be cost prohibitive, but get this: Researchers at the Union of Concerned Scientists say, “if a million households each replaced one 40-watt incandescent bulb with a six-watt LED, and used it six hours per day, more than 53,000 metric tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide would be kept out of the atmos­phere per year.”  And here is the amazing part:  If that one bulb is used six hours per day it will last for 23 years! And it will cost less in electricity.  Based on 10 cents-per­kilowatt hour,  the LED costs $30 to operate over its life­time, vs. $55 for the lifetime of the CFL (compact fluores­cent) bulb. They are safer too, generating less heat and containing no mercury.  I hope that by the time my CFLs are finished (please recycle your dead CFLs at Home De­pot; they contain small amounts of mercury,) the price of the LED bulbs will have come down even more.  Mean­while I better buy just one – I may not live for another 23 years!