A Bright Idea and a Coincidence

Whatever the reason, I received my power bill in the mail today and it contained a nifty little sheet on the many wonders of the Compact Flourescent Light (CFL) bulb.
With credit to Ameren, here is what it said:

"Even one person switching to compact flouescent lighting will save money and give the environment a boost. If every American home replaced just one traditional bulb with an Energy Star-qualified CFL, we would save more than $600 million on annual energy bills and enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year. Why CFL's are a bright idea

• CFL's use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs
• CFL's last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and produce less heat
• You can save $30 to $60 over the life of each CFL bulb you install
• CFL's help reduce the demand for electricity, which in turn helps delay the need for new power plants."

We already have approximately 50% of our lights using CFL's. I made a trip to the local discount grocery and bought a single CFL bulb for under $2. Yes it's a little more than an incandescent, but it definitely more than makes up for it in energy bill savings. There really is no excuse NOT to use these nifty little bulbs.