Thanks to East Lansing’s Urban Options, residents can snag $3 compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) for 99 cents at Capital-region Meijer stores and ACO Hardware stores.
The environmental group landed a $1 million grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission to underwrite the sale, says Joel Wiese, Urban Options spokesman. Buyers need only to pick up the bulbs and pay the reduced price at the checkout stand.
CFLs are important in the community’s efforts to reduce energy use, Wiese says. They burn on average five years longer than an incandescent bulb, and consume considerably less electricity. Lighting represents 20 percent of the average home electricity bill, but once CFLs are installed, the percentage drops to five percent, he says.
People still voice concerns about mercury release if a CFL bulb breaks. But according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if a bulb breaks, one needs only to leave the room for 15 minutes, return and sweep up the debris and dump it in the trash. (The Lansing Board of Water and Light will dispose of burned out CFLs for people depositing them there.)
But Wiese says despite the mercury concerns, it should be understood that compared to the mercury released into the atmosphere by coal-burning energy plants, CFLs are less dangerous.
He adds: “If every American resident replaced his or her five most frequently used bulbs with EnergyStar CFL bulbs, we could save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.”
Source: Joel Wiese, Urban Options
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.