Yahoo!, in collaboration with AC Nielsen and a group of companies, government entities, etcetera, has launched a campaign to raise awareness about energy efficient light bulbs. 18Seconds.org is the location of the attractively-designed campaign, complete with a Yahoo! Maps mashup that lets you see how your city and state rank up in terms of CFL purchases.
The site is filled with energy conservation facts and tips with the site’s name stemming from the average amount of time it takes to swap out a light bulb with a CFL-variant. Living off-campus in college with other broke college guys, I know a thing or two about energy conservation. Every light in our townhouse is fluorescent. We stay away from those weak Ikea and generic CFL bulbs and use a powerful bulb from a company called Nvision. They offer a “daylight” color bulb which doesn’t use much power but is amazingly bright ($8 for 2 at Home Depot).
Please don’t tell the land lady I nailed something into the wall…
Yodel Anecdotal has the details on this new energy conservation awareness campaign.
Today, a group of companies, government entities, non-profits, religious groups, academic institutions and individuals are launching a campaign to educate Americans about the cost-savings and environmental benefits of CFLs. 18Seconds.org is a movement about empowering the individual: Every person in America can literally change the world in one easy step.
This campaign reminds me of when I was in California over the summer and power consumption was of huge concern. People would monitor of this website with a live graph of the actual power consumption and power grid capacity. When the red touched the green, there was a chance of a blackout.
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Very cool site.
Speaking of energy consumption. Raleigh, North Carolina is trying to make the world’s first “LED City” where all lighting in the city (Street lamps, Parking Decks, Traffic Lights, etc) comes from LEDs. LEDs burn approximately 40% less energy than traditional incandescent (Not as much as the ~ 70% less for CLFs) but where CLFs only last 8,000 hours, LEDs last 50,000+ hours.
I found out after I bought some that disposing of them is an issue. They contain mercury and should be properly recycled. Many folks are not going to be aware of that. (I’m the type who reads labels and I don’t recall seeing anything about recycling when I bought my bulbs.) Even if they are aware of it, they might be miles from a recycling center that will deal with mercury.
I use nvision too but hate the ‘daylight’ color. Try the ’soft’ sometime – the light it gives off is a lot more natural – just make sure you get a higher wattage as you lose 25% in a CFL. This normally wouldn’t be worth posting, but the reason it took me so long to convert was how stark and institutional the light seemed. Regardless of what Godin says, I think it’s the quality perception, not the packaging, that keeps people from changing.
I recently bought some of your light bulbs at Home Depot and the last time. They lasted about two weeks.
Aaron mentioned that he likes the “soft” color CFL bulbs. Most of the CFLs I found in Target and Home Depot here in South Florida are the GE & NVision “soft” (green label) bulbs, so I guess a lot of other people must agree.
I found lots of useful information on CFLs including what to do if one breaks, how to dispose of them, and the difference between color temperatures at http://www.nvisioncfl.com