Replacing your old incandescent lights, the regular light bulbs that we all grew up with, and installing compact fluorescent light bulbs (usually referred to as CFL bulbs) in their place can result in some large changes. If you are currently using a 75 watt incandescent bulb then you can replace this with an 18 watt CFL bulb. This means putting out the same amount of light but significantly reducing how much energy you are using.

In fact if every household in America replaced just one light with a CFL bulb then we would be talking about an annual energy savings in the range of 700 million dollars. Saving that much electricity would prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the air each year. That is the equivalent of what is released by 800,000 cars.

So should you run out and replace all of your old bulbs right away? Truth is that it would save you money. An Energy Star approved light can cost anywhere between two and fifteen dollars. At the same time they save you approximately $30 over the life of the bulb.

I would recommend that for starters you just replace the bulbs in your house that are used the most and save the incandescent bulbs that you remove. You can use these bulbs in areas like closets or in the attic where they will rarely be used or are only used for a few minutes every day. This way you get you install your energy saving bulbs where it counts but you aren't wasting the old bulbs by just throwing them out.

One warning that you need to be aware of is that the CFL's do have a small amount of mercury in the light. This is not usually a big concern but if you do happen to break one you are going to want to be careful with the cleanup. There are also some states that require they are taken to a recycling center instead of being thrown out in the garbage.