On April 9 I moved to Williamsburg and into a new (to us) apartment with Lauren. It's on the third floor of the 3 story apartment building and faces W by NW. We've been busy unpacking, organizing our things, and buying furniture on craigslist.
The new apartment is also a good setting for energy/sustainability improvements. I don't think I can get to net-zero energy use quite yet (don't think I can put PV on the roof), but here are some of my first improvements to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Step 1: Lighting
A personal favorite of mine is lighting. The first step is zero cost. It involves turning off any light that won't be used for 10 minutes or longer. Lauren and I are getting very good at this.
Second easiest thing is to install CFLs. They use 75% less power than incandescents. If you're looking for great bang-for-your-buck, look no further. Plus Virginia's electric utilities subsidize the costs of CFLs which means you can get 26W bulbs for <$2 each at places like Ace Hardware or Walmart. In our place, the bathroom three lamp vanity fixture was an obvious place to start:
This existing fixture with three incandescent bulbs uses 180W of power.
I unscrewed two of the lights and replaced the third with a CFL to make the new fixture:
The new apartment is also a good setting for energy/sustainability improvements. I don't think I can get to net-zero energy use quite yet (don't think I can put PV on the roof), but here are some of my first improvements to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Step 1: Lighting
A personal favorite of mine is lighting. The first step is zero cost. It involves turning off any light that won't be used for 10 minutes or longer. Lauren and I are getting very good at this.
Second easiest thing is to install CFLs. They use 75% less power than incandescents. If you're looking for great bang-for-your-buck, look no further. Plus Virginia's electric utilities subsidize the costs of CFLs which means you can get 26W bulbs for <$2 each at places like Ace Hardware or Walmart. In our place, the bathroom three lamp vanity fixture was an obvious place to start:
This existing fixture with three incandescent bulbs uses 180W of power.
I unscrewed two of the lights and replaced the third with a CFL to make the new fixture:
Can you tell the difference? The new energy usage of one CFL= 23W. Estimated savings = $18.9 per year. (3hrs/day, $0.11/kwh) Can't beat that return on investment.
I also changed the bulbs in the ceiling fan above the dining room. We don't use this light often, but when we do we'll be saving 75% of the electricity cost. I also unscrewed two of the incandescents because we have plenty of light with just the two CFLs.
I've put CFLs in all of our floor/table lamps (the majority of the apartment's lighting) and the kitchen already has a large 1x4 fluorescent fixture (this may be the subject of a subsequent upgrade). The only place I'm using incandescents are in the storage closet and the front stairs. I don't want to worry about breaking a bulb in the storage room and we practically never use the stair light.
These upgrades took about 15 minutes and created immediately energy savings (aka negawatts). These lights will also last about 4 times as long as incandescents, reducing landfill waste.
Now to address the 2 legitimate complaints I've ever heard about CFLs:
- They take a couple minutes to 'warm up'.
- They light "doesn't look right".
1- Newer bulbs take 30 seconds to reach maximum light output. Is that really too long to wait? If you're doing surgery or something similar (applying makeup?), just turn on the light 30 seconds before you need it. Problem solved. I also typically install a higher equivalent wattage than the incandescent I'm replacing. Technically you can replace a 60W table lamp with a 13W CFL, but I'll use a 23W CFL to make sure I get enough light output.
2- Basically, yes the light often looks different. By buying better bulbs you can help remedy this problem. You can't get an identical product to the incandescent light bulb that also uses far less power.
The full story involves the issue of light quality. Whole textbooks have been written on this, so I can't do it justice. The basic story is that all light is not created equal. Light is made up of many individual components, separated by their wavelength. The human eye is INCREDIBLY good at adjusting to these differences and making everything seem relatively the same. A light bulb's Color Rendering Index (CRI) is a metric we invented that measures the ability of a certain light source to render colors on objects. The reference standard we use is an incandescent lightbulb, which has a CRI of 100. CFLs often have CRIs of 80 or so (Energy star requires >79). This means they don't render colors as well as incandescents. This site has some good graphs that help explain the physics of what's happening:
http://www.topbulb.com/find/cri.asp
You can buy CFLs with higher CRIs, but they cost more and aren't as readily available. They're often marketed as 'full spectrum'. Incidentally, higher color temperature CFLs often have higher CRIs as well.
Is this CRI issue a show-stopper? No. Is this good to know? Yes. If you're doing artwork or other very color-sensitive tasks, it might make sense to purchase higher CRI CFLs. Or use daylight.
The bottom line remains- CFLs are an easy way to save 75% of your lighting energy.
The full story involves the issue of light quality. Whole textbooks have been written on this, so I can't do it justice. The basic story is that all light is not created equal. Light is made up of many individual components, separated by their wavelength. The human eye is INCREDIBLY good at adjusting to these differences and making everything seem relatively the same. A light bulb's Color Rendering Index (CRI) is a metric we invented that measures the ability of a certain light source to render colors on objects. The reference standard we use is an incandescent lightbulb, which has a CRI of 100. CFLs often have CRIs of 80 or so (Energy star requires >79). This means they don't render colors as well as incandescents. This site has some good graphs that help explain the physics of what's happening:
http://www.topbulb.com/find/cri.asp
You can buy CFLs with higher CRIs, but they cost more and aren't as readily available. They're often marketed as 'full spectrum'. Incidentally, higher color temperature CFLs often have higher CRIs as well.
Is this CRI issue a show-stopper? No. Is this good to know? Yes. If you're doing artwork or other very color-sensitive tasks, it might make sense to purchase higher CRI CFLs. Or use daylight.
The bottom line remains- CFLs are an easy way to save 75% of your lighting energy.
