A Tale of Two Bulbs
Regular incandescent bulbs create a lot of heat. Only about 5 percent of the energy to power an incandescent bulb is converted to light – the rest is released as heat. That means in the summer you need to operate your home’s air conditioning even more to combat the heat incandescent bulbs generate. Talk about energy inefficiency!
Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), by comparison, use at least two-thirds less energy, last up to 10 times longer and are cool to the touch. Though the purchase price of a CFL is more than an incandescent bulb, the long-term savings are impressive. The equation is simple: less energy used means lower utility bills.
Some information for this feature was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.