Condo Blues: I Changed 303,736 Light Bulbs. What Did You Do Today?

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I Changed 303,736 Light Bulbs. What Did You Do Today?

Even though I’ve been living a green life for longer than the three years I’ve been blogging about it, I don’t consider myself a dark green blogger or even an expert most days.

Yes, I was on TV last winter but I think that was more of being a crazy freak who keeps her house too cold during winter than being a held up as Big Green Champion. Saving energy is very important to me and I blog about it a lot , but let’s face it, saving energy is not as sexy or unusual as some other areas of green living that get more press.

So I do my daily green thing and try to do my best with what life hands me. If I can make you laugh or make you think or offer you a new tool for your Greening Living Swiss Army Knife, make your home a little prettier or challenge you to personally change 303,736 incandescent light nulbs for CFLs in fourth months then it’s a good day here on Condo Blues. 

“What?! Are you nuts?!” you say, “Do you think I could actually change all of those light bulbs in a such a short amount of time?!”

I sure do. It's easy!

How I Planted 8,209 Trees in Four Months



For the past four months (September to December), I’ve been pledging and completing a little Act of Green here and there and tracking it on One Million Acts of Green. The little stuff, the cheap stuff and now that it’s a part of our household routine – the easy stuff. Cleaning my reusable furnace filters, running my dishwasher when it’s full, putting my holiday lights on a timer - that kind of stuff. Every once and awhile I’d send someone a Gift of Green ecard too.

While I realize that in and of itself, using a reusable coffee cup every day is no big thing but once I started looking at my totals, collectively my Acts of Green turned into a very big thing!

I completed 111 Acts of Green in the last four months.  

That is equivalent to reducing the same number of green house gases as:

·        Taking 1,739 cars off the road for a year
·        Planting 8,209 trees
·        Replacing 303,736 conventional light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs

Wow. All that work and I didn’t even break a sweat!

I guess maybe I am a dark green blogger after all. You won’t hold that against me, will you?

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Disclosure:  Rockfish Interactive, in partnership with  Cisco are compensating me for my considerable time on this project. However, my ideas, words, and opinions are my own and are not influenced by this compensation. See what the other ambassadors have to say about One Million Acts of Green: Crunchy Domestic Goddess, Green Your Décor and Green and Clean Mom.


6 comments :

Frances said...

We have saved a lot of money, and reduced our environmental impact by switching to CFL's with one major exception: they can't take the humidity in the bathroom. After having to replace the bathroom light 3 times, and having 3 CFL's that are considered hazardous waste and can't be thrown away, I switched back to incandescent in the bathroom. Just so you know they are those round vanity light ones.

Laura Kaeding said...

Alright, you have convinced me to expand on my greenie-ness, and I signed up for One Million Acts of Green. Can't hurt, right?

@Frances: Our apartment only allows halogens. They never burn out, but I confess ignorance as to how eco-friendly they are.

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

Francis & Simply Green - I changed my light bulbs when I did my first energy reduction challenge. I have CFLs, halogen, & 5 incandescent. The halogens use less electricity than an incandescent and more than a CFL and they burn a little hotter than an incandescent. They're a good tool for your arsenal if you can't or don't want CFLs.

Lori aka Groovy Green Livin said...

We have switched bulbs gradually-as they burn out they are replaced with CFL's. I have to admit I don't love them-the lighting is different and I am concerned about the mercury. But I will continue to swap them out-continuing on my quest to make small, simple changes that will green up my life! Thanks for the cute post-and you did make me laugh at least once!

Carol said...

I think your green aura may be getting darker by the minute! Not to mention, your sharing of green ideas totally gets you extra greenie points. I'm pretty sure with an older house and my husband's gas guzzler vehicles, we are about as light green as it gets. However, we do have a worm bin, use CFLs in part of the house, and recycle aluminum so we aren't totally ignorant, right? Love the ideas... keep on sharing!

Carol
antiquetexan.blogspot.com

Dmarie said...

love your blog...already a subscriber. and this post reminds me that it's time to tackle replacing a halogen light (I'd forgotten) in the kitchen with hopefully an LED, if not a CFL. Thx for raising important issues!

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