Who’d have thought it? As some of you may have noticed when buying light bulbs at Wal-Mart recently, they’re starting to make a big push to sell more compact fluorescent bulbs (linked from a New York Times article…you may need to log in…). From the article:
“A compact fluorescent has clear advantages over the widely used incandescent light — it uses 75 percent less electricity, lasts 10 times longer, produces 450 pounds fewer greenhouse gases from power plants and saves consumers $30 over the life of each bulb. But it is eight times as expensive as a traditional bulb, gives off a harsher light and has a peculiar appearance.
“As a result, the bulbs have languished on store shelves for a quarter century; only 6 percent of households use the bulbs today.
“Which is what makes Wal-Mart’s goal so wildly ambitious. If it succeeds in selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008, total sales of the bulbs in the United States would increase by 50 percent, saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes.”
Now that Brooke and I have moved to a new apartment, and since AmerenUE is trying to hike electricity rates in Missouri, we’re going to try using compact fluorescent bulbs wherever we can. We got a set of 10 from Sam’s Club a few months ago for $15 (give or take…) and, personally, that seems like a pretty reasonable price to me. That, and I don’t really see much of a difference in the light emitted from them.
Anyway, if you’ve never used the bulbs before, you ought to give them a try. While I generally dislike Wal-Mart, they are certainly a “force of nature” when it comes to retail, so hopefully this push of theirs will result in more people using the bulbs and maybe make some kind of difference in global warming. As the article goes on to discuss, Wal-Mart basically told their suppliers “we’re going ahead with this, so come along or be left behind”…a few of those companies were very much against changing their manufacturing to make more of these “more expensive” bulbs. Maybe if we all start buying these bulbs, such manufacturers will get the idea, eh (cue light bulb going off above their respective heads)?