Al Gore Has Gotten to Me

A while ago I wrote a post about why I don't use compact fluorescent bulbs. A few others posted that they, too, had trouble adapting to the new style bulbs because of the off color and the slow warm up times. But then I went and watched An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's movie about the dangers of climate change - and it scared the crap out of me.

I'm a greenie. I recycle and turn off the lights when I leave the room. I even take the train to work. But this movie made me realize I need to do more. It also helped me think about how I could do more without making big compromises in my lifestyle. I still don't love compact fluorescents, but I've come up with some ways to use them that bug me less.

Here's where I am using them now:

• In my stairwells. These are just pass-through rooms I don't spend much time in so the quality of light is less important to me than, say, in the dining room where we sit to eat.
• In my bathroom fan units. I kept my beloved GE Reveal incandescents above the vanity so I can look at my face with a natural color of light, but I use the fluorescents in the exhaust fan light that's on while I shower.
• Over the stove. That little light over the stove that doesn't get used except when you are cooking can be replaced by a miniature CF bulb I found at the local hardware store.
• In some lamps with cloth shades. As others have pointed out, the color is less noticeable if it is filtered by a shade. I don't use them, though, on lamps I use for reading.
• In the laundry room. It's a utility area that we never spend much time in.
• Half of the recessed lights in my family room. We have 8 recessed cans in the family room ceiling. 4 of them have halogen floods that cast a bright, white light over key spots like the couch, the computer desk and the sewing table. The other four cans are filled with these new compact fluorescent floods I found on the Energy Federation's website at a discount (subsidized by my electric utility, Nstar). The mixed light isn't bad and the brighter lights are over the key areas.

I still don't like the color of the lights in the hallways and these new bulbs do have a slight delay before they come on (which is annoying when walking into a dark laundry room). But these feel now like minor inconveniences compared with the consequences of inaction. And I'm hoping I will save some money as well.

There are some other things we're doing to save energy that I will write about in a separate entry to come soon. Check out ClimateCrisis.org (the companion site to the movie) for more on what you can do. What has been your experience with compact fluorescent bulbs or other energy-saving methods? 

Comments

[Ben]

I'm using similar tactics for CFL. I starting using a Power Cost Monitor to learn more about how we use energy. It makes it pretty clear that the big energy drains are our appliances, esp the refrigerator and dishwasher. Those are pretty big investments though, so I'm holding off for now (besides, is throwing out working appliances really better for the environment?). We've also started turning off the computer and all the peripherals, using the off-switch on a surge suppressor to really cut off all the juice. That means the wireless network is off at night, too. That a pretty decent savings, and easy to do.

[katja]

we've replaced every possible lightbulb with the CFLs. that leaves us with the over-the-stove light (ooh! you found a cfl for that? let me at it!) and one remaining halogen desk lamp (which is almost never used), and two specialty kids' lamps from ikea that are not yet installed in our new place anyway. and the light in the refridgerator and the stove.

i definitely don't like the quality of the light as much, but i decided right off the bat that having light at all is pretty cool, and i'd rather *decide* to adapt to a different kind of lightbulb than be forced to live in what might be coming. frankly, it might be coming anyway, so i don't have an excuse.

we put cut switches on all of our appliances so that we can power them down altogether when they're not in use...i got pretty obsessive about sustainability living on a farm, isolated in central vermont. oh man, we had this refridgerator - i really want to get one for this apartment, though it isn't a standard size, so it would require some refitting - called the ConServ. seriously. there are people who post odes to this refridgerator on their blogs. it uses $2.50 in electricity a month (that's NYC electric rates, whatever those are), and makes almost no noise at all. plus, it looks cool. [ http://www.conservrefrigerators.com/conserv.html ]

i still think we could be doing more, and it's weird, recalibrating to the city, but...

according to the map [http://geongrid.geo.arizona.edu/arcims/website/slrus48prvi/viewer.htm], arlington is underwater at 23 feet, but rockport is safe? go figure...

wouldn't it be cool if office buildings had a hard-shut-down time? like, from the hours of 7pm-6am or something, they just power the whole building down...

[Bruce McCarthy]

Office buildings bug me too. You often see the lights on in these places with no one in them at night.

Lots of developers wouldn't like having their computers shut down overnight, but I wonder if a means could be devised for a hard shut down at night with designated exceptions.

[katja]

i got to ranting and forgot my two favorite tricks for CFL's:

the first is, if you have directional lighting (we have some lamps that can be "pointed" in whatever direction), bouncing flourescent light off a wall drastically improves the quality of the light, especially if the wall is cream or yellow or, really any color!

the second is, those japanese-style paper lantern lamps also really help the quality of the light, especially if you get the kind that's made of unbleached rice paper. even the bleached white ones make a big improvement though, if that sort of thing can fit with your decorating style.