How many people does it take to screw in a CFL light bulb? One but what a smart consumer.

CFLs or Compact Florescent Lamps may not be a shoppers first choice when picking out bulbs but they should be. These bulbs retail for about $4. Much more costly then the traditional incandescent bulbs many households still use. However, the cost of the purchase is nothing compared to the savings that these bulbs will bring.

If you purchased 10 regular bulbs (incandescent bulbs are about $.50) at $5 you would still need to replace those long before the CFLs stop working. The CFL bulbs last eight to 10 to 15 times longer than the incandescent bulbs.

If that is not a good enough reason, how about the fact that you would be helping the environment with your purchase? CFLs use one-fourth of the electricity of a incandescent bulb. Just to give consumers an idea of what this means if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR (a CFL qualifies), we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars. For more information about Energy Star, visit www.energystar.gov. Some countries are considering banning the use of incandescent bulbs and selling CFLs only.

There are a few set backs to these bulbs. Not just any CFL can be used on a dimmer or a three-way switch. Those made to do so are also more costly (although they will still save you money long term) and you may experience a delay when turning CFLs on, which some consumers report as annoying (havent we gotten a little too impatient). CFLs also contain a small amount of mercury and should be properly disposed of, not just tossed in the trash.

125 years ago the incandescent bulb was invented. Most definitely one of the greatest inventions, however, it is now time to make the world a brighter place.

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