Reduce Your Home’s Carbon Footprint
If you replace an incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent light (CFL) in a room that’s lit six hours a day, you’ll save 126 kilowatt-hours of electricity by year’s end. This translates into 170 pounds of CO2 emissions. Multiply that by the number of lights in your home, and you can see that making this simple switch makes a real difference.
CFLs have moved beyond the standard spiral coil and now come in shapes that fit many different fixtures. For example, globe shapes work well in bathrooms while dome shapes (which look similar to conventional bulbs) should be used in lamps with shades that clip directly onto the bulb. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are also efficient—some bulbs last as long as 60,000 hours—but because they don’t provide a sufficient amount of light for most people’s tastes, they are best used for reading lamps or under-cabinet or shelf lighting.
To conserve energy, turn off lights when you leave a room, and unplug stereo systems, phone chargers, and video games when you’re not using them. Clean your house with chlorine-free, natural supplies, and wash clothes in cold water. Limit showers to no more than five minutes if you can, install aerating showerheads, and fix leaky faucets.
