Home Removal Services Blog

This article is the first of a list of practical things you can do to save lots of money on your monthly electric consumption bills with DIY cut monthly electricity costs. You could get yourself some new green products or even take you and your family on a mini vacation.

Compact Fluorescent Lamp aka CFL or circular fluorescent bulb. Incandescent bulbs generate light differently to a CFL bulb.

Thomas Edison was the inventor of incandescent light bulbs and since his invention the general principle of them is still the same. After electricity is connected to both sides of the carbon filament it gets hot and the outcome is light. In CFL bulbs, as with older fluorescent tubes, a closed glass tube is coated with a fluorescent coating that glows when current is applied to the argon and mercury vapour inside.

Now you may have heard this before, however unless you are only turning that incandescent bulb on a couple of times per year, you’re wasting money, doesn’t matter how cheap that bulb is. If you want to save money look for the green products. Compared with an incandescent bulb the newer Energy Star CFL bulbs can save around 75% in costs. In a period of 6 months A CFL bulb will pay for itself and save you about $30 per bulb over the period of its lifetime!

The CFL bulb has come a long way these days giving us a much wider choice of light spectrum that is omitted. This can really enhance the mood of the room, home office or family room. The CFL color choices vary from a daylight blue to a warm yellow. If you like the mood that incandescent light bulbs produce then going for a warmer CFL light would suit you better. Be aware that the daylight or bluer light comes across as very harsh white light and can have negative effects on people that are sensitive to light.

If you look at the package that the bulb comes in it should have K for Kelvin rating, which gives you the “temperature” of the bulb. A Kelvin rating of 2700K-3000K means it’s a warm/yellow bulb. 3500K-4100K Kelvin rating will get you a cool white bulb. And if you wanted the Daylight Blue bulb look for a Kelvin rated bulb of 5000K-6500K.

If you are looking to replace 40 watt incandescent bulbs, use 9-13 watt CFL bulbs. For a 60 watt incandescent bulb use a 13-15 watt CFL. Replace a 75 watt incandescent with an 18-25 watt CFL. And to replace 100 watt incandescents use 23-30 watt CFLs.

Please remember to recycle all compact fluorescent bulbs. In some states disposing of mercury filled bulbs with solid waste rubbish is illegal. Thats because in one CFL there is about 5 milligrams of mercury.

If you want places to recycle your used CFL bulbs and other green products you can take them to places such as IKEA, (OSH) Orchard, ACE Hardware and Home Depot.

If you are wanting decorative lights, consider Energy Star qualified light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. These LEDs use up to 90% less energy than the same incandescent bulbs to produce exactly the same amount of light! I have heard that the power needed for only one 7 watt incandescent bulb could be used to power up to 140 LEDs!

So it’s a good idea to use CFLs inside and outside you could try the LEDs. These will reduce your carbon footprint and save you lots of money at the same time.

Solar energy is one of the hottest topics in today’s marketplace. With government incentives at record levels-and even utilities paying you to switch to solar-now is the time to research more and find out how you can save money with solar energy.

But what is solar energy? How does it work? Can it really produce electricity?

Solar energy harnesses the power of the sun. When sunlight hits photovoltaic cells (they look like giant computer chips made of silicon) the photons in the sunlight make all electrons to be released from the silicon. If you can capture those electrons, you have electricity.

Think of it like this: you are playing billiards (shooting pool) and you shoot the cue ball into another ball. What happens? The white ball bounces making that other ball into motion as well.

When sunlight hits the solar cell, it ricochets off and sets the electron in motion. Electricity is made of electrons. The more electrons you can set in motion-and harness-the additional electricity you can generate.

For an great article on solar energy and other green energy, visit this page at NASA http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/greenspace/clean-energy.html

So does this help you in your house? The government is fighting hard for solar energy. $19 billion dollars has been set away to help advocate solar energy throughout our country. The federal government as well as many state governments and utilities, will actually pay you to start utilizing solar energy.

Why do they do this? First, we want to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Second, burning fossil fuel is aweful for the environment. Solar energy, on the other hand, is absolutely clean. There are no byproducts. There aren’t carbon emissions. It is a very clean and pure way of generating electricity. Third, the government wants to create the solar industry in this country which will create more and more jobs and opportunities.

Solar energy is not inexpensive, however. Solar energy for a home may cost $20,000. Do not stop reading this article! There is great news. The government and utilities will rebate you up to 70% of the cost of the system. In this example, you could get tax credits and rebates for about $14,000. The net price to you is $6000. If you were to finance this, you may pay about $50-$75 each month. You may say this much or more in your electric bill! Even if you don’t, you not only done something great for the environment, but have also increased the value of your house by about $20,000! If you’re going to resell your home, this not only adds value of nature house more desirable than other houses on the market.

There are also laws preventing local government from raising your taxes when you add solar energy to your house. We cannot give you specific tax advice-you must consult with your accountant or attorney.