Day 359 of our Green Year: Disposing of CFLs

Way back, about 350 days back or so, give or take a few days, we switched our house to CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights), or rather our old house in Rossland. At the new ranch, we set up CFLs as well. Some of these lights can last for upwards of 10 years, and that means that even though they are incredibly energy efficient, they will need to be replaced and if you want to be environmentally friendly, you won't just throw them in the garbage.

It is amazing, but only three percent of CFLs are disposed of correctly, or correctly recycled. The rest ends up in landfills and this creates a problem because the bulbs contain mercury. It is unfortunate that such an energy efficient product, that can literally save millions of tonnes of CO2 from going into the atmosphere, can also contain an element that is so poisonous to the environment. Mercury is so bad that if you drop one of these bulbs on the floor, everyone in the room should clear out for 15 minutes so that the dust can settle and the broken pieces can be swept up. Once you sweep it up, seal it in a bag and put it in the trash, most places won't take CFLs like this unfortunately so it has to go in the trash.

Thankfully, recycling CFLs is very easy because many companies and stores will take the old CFLs and dispose of them for you. Home Depot and IKEA are two places that take CFL lights. You can also visit Earth911.org and call 800-CLEAN-UP to find a list of places that you can dispose of the CFLs at.

One cool note. We were at Rona recently picking up another recycling bin for our ranch to help better organize everything and we saw this sign at the checkout. Good Job Rona!

Day 238 of our Green Year: Bulbs and Empty Sockets

Today, it was an easy task to take care of at the ranch. Months ago, early on in Our Green Year, Layla and I began unplugging anything not in use in an effort to keep vampire power from being a problem.

Well, recently I looked up at one of our lights with CFL bulbs in them and saw that one socket was empty. As a result, I began to think that the empty socket may still be drawing power, albeit only a small amount. This seemed like wasted power since there is nothing there to use the power. If you are going to have light while you are in a room, you might as well use all the power efficiently, without waste. I'm not an electrician, so I can't say if having a light in two of three light sockets in the kitchen is better than having a light in all three, but might as well use what we have.

Therefore, we went around the house today and made sure that all sockets had CFL lights in them. The argument could be made that leaving a socket empty can save energy, but we see it as more of wasted energy. One of the worst things for the environment is wasted energy, hence why we unplug everything.

If you have wasted energy in your home, whether it is heat escaping through windows, an open fridge or empty sockets, you need to take care of it.

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We did laundry today by hand and dried by the heat of the wood stove. As well, we cleared out some of the snow with the snow shovel. One thing everyone in the house has been doing to keep warm, without using extra heat, is wearing a toque. I started wearing one in our downstairs office, and before long everyone was wearing them. It is amazing how much you can heat yourself up by just wearing a toque indoors.

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Day 51 of Our Green Year: Finding Glowing Solutions For Old Lights

No one really stops to think about what they can do with their old and spent incandescent light bulbs. Surprisingly, there are quite a few things that people can do with them instead of throwing them out or having them sit around the house collecting dust. Especially with the new laws coming in over the next few years, where some places are banning the use of incandescent light bulbs, there are going to be many people left with incandescent light bulbs that are not being used any more.

For the creative person out there, they can do more with their incandescent light bulbs instead of adding them to the garbage. Instead, they can turn them into cute and pretty decorations around the house in the form of small vases that hang in front of a window, cute little bugs with coloured water in them that hang on the wall or the window, or even as holders for bath salts in the washroom that hang on the wall.

Craig and I decided to turn a couple of our incandescent light bulbs into pink and purple bugs that could liven up our door that goes out onto our deck. After emptying the light bulbs, decorating them and filling them with coloured water, they turned out to be a couple of nice inside decorations with little effort.

Now, before one can do anything with the light bulbs, one will have to empty out the inside. This can be done by using a pair of pliers to pull off the metal end piece. Then, the dark plastic part is put over a flame to weaken the plastic and allow it to be broken apart. Then, after prying off the plastic, one will have to take something long and narrow and carefully break apart the inside tube. Once this is done and the broken bits have been taken out and disposed of, the inside of the bulb can be rinsed out with some water. Cloudy bulbs will become clear; some salt will help take the remainder of some of the frosting out of the bulb.

Once the bulb is empty, one can make just about anything they can think of, including,

a) Decorative bugs for the window

b) Bath salt holders

c) Flower holders (fake flowers can be used)

d) Decorations for Christmas, Easter or any other holiday

All one has to do is be creative and have fun! One note of caution, however, is to make sure that all stray glass pieces are vacuumed up so as not to have anyone cut their hands on them.

If you make something with your old incandescent light bulb, send a picture of it to crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put it up here!

Day 8 of our Green Year: Lighting Up The House Efficiently

Yay, one week ago today this blog was created and already we are getting a lot of feedback on it and a lot of visits. Both Layla and I are excited about where this blog will go in the coming weeks, and months.

For Day 8, we decided that the time was right to switch our house over to Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) from the standard incandescent lights. We are doing this to not only save energy, which means less fossil fuels, but also to save money on our electric bill. These lights will replace the rest of the old fashioned lights in our house, and while they cost more, they are better in the long run.

A full 25 percent of the energy bill in a typical home is from the lighting and the price to light an incandescent bulb over its life is as much as 10 times what the bulb cost originally. The CFLs we are purchasing will last 10 times as long as the old bulbs, use 50 to 80 percent less energy and are four times more efficient.

Surprisingly, one of the easiest and best things you can do for the environment is to install these bulbs, which is why our house is now a Compact Fluorescent Light house. If everyone in the U.S.A used these bulbs, it would mean 90 power plants could shut down; reducing CO2 pollutants and nuclear waste.

CO2 Removed from atmosphere after replacing incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs (five rooms) over life of bulbs: 2.5 tons.