"Oh, come on, that's like, rule number one for going green!
Oh . . . oh, I get it."
If you still have incandescent bulbs in your home or business you're either A) staunchly against changing your old habits, in which case, I'm not sure what I can do for you, B) trying to enhance blooming in your plants with the red light produced by the bulbs, C) convinced that new lightbulbs are too expensive, D) trying to do something equally green and using up what you have instead of just tossing out your old things, or E) you have them stored away awaiting a chance to properly recycle them.
I can tell you right away that there are more effective methods than using incandescent bulbs to enhance the blooms on your plants, you could probably put them in a moderately sunny window and get better results.
As for how expensive the bulbs are, you're right, they are less expensive than CFL's (Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs) or LED's (Light Emitting Diodes). However, that's just talking about the upfront cost. Over their lifetimes CFL's and LED's will cost you less in the energy they use in order to provide you with light. And LED's outperform CFL's.
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A little odd looking, but honestly how
often do you stare at your lightbulbs? |
They're also about
$10 a bulb (sort "Price: Low to High" to see). If you're used to buying $2-$3 incandescents, you may balk at that, but think about the long term. These bulbs last at least 20, yes TWENTY, times longer than incandescents and use less energy while they outlast the incandescents. Back on the Home Depot's site (which if you didn't click it, that's where I linked to) you can easily find in the product descriptions that the cheapest incandescent bulb is guaranteed to last 1,000 hours while the cheapest LED is guaranteed for 20,000 hours. They also outlast CFL's and do so with out any mercury. So basically, go get some LED's.
But now wait a minute, hold your horses, what about those old bulbs? Incandescent or CFL? You can recycle CFL's, in fact, because of the mercury many towns require they be recycled (since, you know, mercury leaking from bulbs in landfills is generally recognized a bad thing). But those incandescent bulbs are another story. There isn't enough recyclable material in them to warrant recycling them at all. If you can find a place that recycles them, more power to you and please share with us here, but most likely you won't find anyone to take them. What do you do? You can throw them out (cringe), you can
repurpose them (sometimes impractical, but a viable option), you can save them for use in the winter, when the heat they give off can be put to use (but is that really saving you any money? or resources?), you should probably save the ones that haven't burnt out yet for use in low-use areas such as closets and use them up slowly, but you will probably have to bite the bullet on this one and throw them out. But know that you can stop the cycle of madness when you stop buying them.
In short: stop buying incandescents, avoid CFL's and their mercury, choose long-lasting and overall money-saving LED's, and hold back a tear as you throw away the burnt out incandescents.
All you have to do is get a few outdoor solar lights, the kind meant to be stuck along the walk in your garden, put them by a sunny window or set them outside during the daytime, and stick them around your house at night! No, this won't cover all of your lighting needs. When I heard of this tip I immediately envisioned trying to cook by their light in the kitchen--it wasn't a terribly happy vision. Where they are perfect is in the living room, used as a reading lamp, or at your computer desk, in the dining room, and basically whenever you just need enough light to see by. Instead of turning on a lamp you just use these! When you don't need a lot of light, as opposed to when you're cooking or putting on your makeup, these should provide what you need whilst never accessing the grid, A.K.A. saving you money on your electric bill.
