Replace Your Incandescent Bulbs

The light fixtures in most of our homes were designed to hold the standard “Edison base” incandescent bulbs. We’re all familiar with the threaded base on these bulbs since it was invented over 100 years ago by the famous inventor Thomas Edison. This shows just how old-fashioned this lighting system is.

The standard incandescent light bulb creates light by heating a thin threadlike object called a filament (usually a Tungsten) until it glows white hot. This primitive process produces more than 90 percent heat and less than 10 percent light. Luckily, we now have a simple and cheap alternative: compact fluorescent lamps that use about one-fourth the energy of incandescents.

You can buy compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) just about anywhere these days, from hardware stores to groceries. Many screw right in to the standard Edison base, allowing you to keep your existing light fixtures. But the best way to improve the efficiency and quality of your lighting is by installing new fixtures that are designed specifically for CFLs. These dedicated fixtures use special CFLs with a pin-type base, and they include a built-in ballast that replaces the bulky ballast found at the base of screw-in CFLs. Dedicated CFL fixtures are also designed with high efficiency reflectors that direct an even and pleasant ray of light into the room.

You can also buy dedicated CFL fixtures for every application. When you’re ready to install them, you should hire a licensed electrician to do the work unless you are familiar with home wiring. Buying CFL and CFL fixures may cost at first but in the long run you will save on energy and money.