If Americans Are Savvy on Energy-Efficient Lighting Savings, Why Are They Slow to Cash In?

If you've lingered over CFL displays at the hardware store or on Green Irene, then calcuiated the cost and walked on - you're not alone.

A new study by Osram Sylvania found that while awareness and adoption of energy efficient lighting is growing, Americans don't seem to be feeling any urgency about saving money and energy by switching.

Seems that while 74% of survey respondents have switched in 2009, almost 75% of the respondents were unaware that the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 calls for incandescent bulbs to be phased out, starting with 100-watt bulbs, as of January 2012.

So - why are consumers holding back?

Fear of Buyer's Remorse?

The survey results indicate that first reason is cost. While buyers are aware of the savings CFL and LED bulbs offer, they question their value versus their cost. While 91% of respondents consider energy consumption per bulb to be an important factor in their purchase decisions, only 66% of them expect to purchase a CFL or LED bulb in the future, and 52% pecent say that price is a major factor in their buying decisions.

This question is often raised in my Go-Green workshops. Usually my response is something like this:

Yes, you're paying a higher price for an energy-efficient bulb than you would for a standard incandescent. However, you'll quickly regain that expenditure in savings:

• For every standard CFL, you're saving the cost of up to 10 incandescents
• For every cold-cathode (dimmable) CFL, you're saving the cost of up to 25 incandescents
• If you calculate the cost of the energy you're saving at 16 cents per KwH, that comes to roughly $735 per standard CFL or $1828 per cold-cathode CFL, over the life of the bulb

For a handy calculator of your actual savings with Green Irene's discounted bulbs, check out this guide from Green Irene.

Incandescent Loyalty

Despite the near-total awareness of CFL and LED energy savings, loyalty to incandescents remains strong: 13% of respondents plan to stock up on 100-watt bulbs before the phase-out, and 16% plan to switch to lower-wattage incandescents rather than moving to energy-efficient bulbs.

In my workshops, I hear some possible reasons for this loyalty...

• Buzzing, flickering, delayed lighting - Energy Star standards require that new CFL bulbs must be free of these defects
• Sickly greenish or harsh white hospital-like light - New CFLs offer a spectrum from soft-white incandescent-like light (2700K), to green-blue (4100K), to “daylight” or bright-white light (5100K)- so you do have options!
• Not usable in all settings (e.g., 3-way or dimmable) - Green Irene and some other vendors sell hard-to-find specialty bulbs 3-way, dimmable, candelabra-bottom flame-tip dimmable, vanity globes, outdoor floodlights and bug lights
• MERCURY! – Yes, a standard Energy-Star CFL contains 0.05 mg of mercury; a premium CFL contains 0.01 mg, while incandescents have none. But the real difference is in the coal-powered energy that it takes to burn them: The power to burn an incandescent bulb results in 10 mg. of mercury in the air versus 2.4 mg. of mercury emitted to light a CFL for an equal period of time.

Bottom Line - A Small Up-Front Investment, A Big, Long-Term Return

Yes, times are tough right now, and the prospect of swapping out all your bulbs for energy-efficient alternatives can be pretty overwhelming when you count all the bulbs in your house. However, nobody is saying that you need to trash the bulbs you're burning now (though that's all you can do with incandescents when they burn out -- unlike CFLs, they can't be recycled).

Incandescents are short-lived critters, liable to burn out at any moment. Start by buying a few energy-efficient bulbs for the lights you use most (i.e., the bulbs that are likely to burn out soonest). Once you've replaced those, look for the next, and so forth. Don't try to swap out all your bulbs at once.

And this holiday, look for lighting companies that have recycling programs for your outdoor light strings, along with discounts for buying LED equivalents. You'll save in the short run and the long run!