8:03 am January 22, 2008Saving
Jon got a wild idea about doing our part to conserve energy. It wasn’t so much in order to make smaller our carbon footprint or any such nonsense; it was in hopes of making smaller our power bill. I know, we are shallow and ignorant. Anyhoo, we went to Costco a few weeks ago and bought 5 boxes of the compact fluorescent bulbs and replaced every single bulb in the house. (We then filled up 1/5 of our local landfill with the old, non-economical bulbs. Take that, carbon footprint.)
The immediate impression that we had was that our house was overall “dimmer”. The compacts aren’t as bright. I now find myself walking into things, knocking over plant stands, and banging my shins on furniture corners. Which is kind of weird, because the furniture hasn’t moved or anything… But I now walk around my house with a perpetual squint, which really does nothing to improve the crow’s feet around my aging eyes.
The second thing we noticed is that there is a nano-second delay when you flip the light switch, which also feels a little foreign when you are used to the light flooding the room immediately upon flipping the switch. When I walk into the bathroom and flip the switch, I will occasionally walk into the toilet bowl before the light comes on. I think the toilet bowl may have actually been moved, though… aliens or prankster pixies or something. The bowl seems — in the dull glow of the bathroom light — to be situated about 1/8 of an inch further to left than it was when we moved into the house. (I will further investigate this anomaly at a later time.)
The third thing I noticed is that the light in the master bathroom is terrible. It has a yellow, pallid glow that makes me cringe when I look at myself. (At least, I think I’m cringing; like I said, it’s hard to see myself.) Each morning I imagine that I look jaundiced and therefore overcompensate with the blue-hued make-up. The end result is me leaving the house looking like this guy:
He had to drink colloidal silver daily for 8 years to look like this.
I only had to change my light bulbs.
The plus side to all of the shin-whacking and hideous outward appearance is that over 10 years time, we will save about 46 cents on our power bill. Again, I’m kidding… it will actually be more like 96 cents. Which is nothing to shake a dim, jaundiced stick at.
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All I’m going to say is this: Beware of fire. After my little blaze in the bathroom, I read that these compact bulbs shouldn’t be in every room – you might want to look it up on the internet. Clearly I didn’t know that when I did my big green changeover, and I don’t remember anyone warning me on TV. (Like that’s a reliable source…)
So, after looking sickly for weeks, and extinguishing a small house fire, I am scared.
Does this mean I hate the earth?
Comment by Lisa Milton — January 22, 2008 @ 10:02 am
@MamaMilton- I remember you writing about a house fire, but I didn’t remember that it was from a light bulb… yikes. Maybe we have a good reason to switch back.
And I’m so happy to have found a fellow Earth-Hater. We are so few in number.
Comment by admin — January 22, 2008 @ 11:30 am
I’d like to make smaller our power bill. The last one made me cry.
Comment by Leslie — January 22, 2008 @ 9:41 pm
I feel your pain, since we too have the eco friendly “candlelight” bulbs I am unable to actually see your pain though. It is nice to know that I will not be the only one who is aging at a faster rate do to poor light quality. =) Maybe everyone will convert soon and than no one will be able to see our premature wrinkles. =)
Comment by Diana — January 23, 2008 @ 8:16 am
You are all sad Earth-killers. Kidding! I would never, ever want to look like the creepy silver dude, and it would frighten me if you did. Best of luck working this one out. In the dark.
Comment by stephanie — January 24, 2008 @ 7:02 am