Sabrina Dent: Freelance web designer, developer and internet marketer living in Cork, Ireland with one dog and a husband in no particular order.
Spend Money to Save Money
So I was thinking more about the new light bulb legislation today, because while I’m very excited about this, I’m also becoming a little concerned about the costs. John Gormley noted the issue in a blog entry, saying:
The replacement bulbs such as CFLs and LEDs, may be more expensive, but even in the short term the measure will result in people actually saving money through lower electricity bills and the longer life of new technology bulbs.
And this is completely true. CFL bulbs use 20% of the energy, and last 15 times as long, which is quite frankly amazing. They also cost 10 times as much, which is problematic.
As bulbs in our rental house have burned out, we’ve been replacing them on a one for one basis with CFLs – because they are better for the environment and are cheaper over the long term. They also cost €6.50 each. One at a time this is manageable, but when we moved in here, we bought packs and packs of lighbulbs – for the overhead pendant lamps, for recessed lights, for bathroom fixtures, for spot lighting and free-standing reading lamps.
We probably bought a dozen or so light bulbs all at once. They were around 76 cents each, so that trip to Tesco cost less than a tenner. To make the same trip next year and buy CFLs will cost SEVENTY EIGHT EUROS.
Let me tell you how often I have €78 going spare: never. That’s more than we spend on groceries in a week – hell, if we’re at the end of our budget, that’s groceries for two weeks.
I was poking around the Power of One at Work website today, and found a case study on Tesco Ireland, which instituted “energy efficient design” in new stores last year. And energy efficiency measures certainly do pay for themselves; as Tesco themselves say,
For an investment of €1 million, energy savings of €1.7 million were achieved in 2006.
Which is marvellous. Except the point is that Tesco had the million euros to spend on measures that would save them money in the long run. I don’t have the €78 (or the million.)
Like I said, one at a time, it’s manageable and does make a nice dent in the electric bill. The having to do it all at once is a bitch when it happens. I guess that for most people, especially home owners, moving house is a rare thing. For us, especially as renters, it’s a regular occurrence. We’ve moved three times in five years.
I’m still really glad to have this legislation in place. I’m just hopeful that there might be some kind of grant or rebate or something by the time it comes into play, so we can afford to screw in a lightbulb without tightening our belts, too.
12 Dec 2007
| In: Activism + Ireland |
I see you’re now the lucky recipient of a nice €250 worth of Bord Gas goodies Sabrina… maybe that’ll make a dent (sorry for the pun) in your Electricity bills?
26.03.2009, 2:44 pm