If you want to save money on your power bills this DIY cut monthly electricity costs article is going to show you some great and practical ways. You and your family could enjoy some new green products or even a small vacation.

CFL is what’s called a Compact Fluorescent Lamp or a circular fluorescent bulb. Incandescent bulbs generate light differently to a CFL bulb.

Since Thomas Edison’s invention of incandescent light bulbs they have pretty much worked the same way. When electricity is connected to both of the sides of a carbon filament, it gets hot and light is produced. CFLs and normal fluoro tubes contain a closed glass tube with a fluoro coating that glows when current is applied to the argon and mercury vapour inside.

You might’ve heard how the incandescent bulbs work but if you are using the bulb more than a couple of times a year, your money is being wasted, no matter how cheap the bulb was. Green products can help you save your money. Saving around 75% in costs is the newer Energy Star compact fluorescent lights compared with the incandescent bulbs. In 6 months of usage a CFL will pay for itself saving you about $30 per bulb over its lifespan!

There are different choices for the color of the light omitted from the CFL bulbs these days. Changing the mood of any room in the house, office, hotel etc is now very possible. The CFL bulb colors offer a variety of choices from daylight blue to warm yellow. If you prefer the look and feel of what incandescent bulbs offer choose a warm light. A good thing to remember is that the bluer light can be quite harsh and have negative effects on light sensitive people.

If you see a K on the bulb packaging, that K or Kelvin rating, will give you the “temperature” of the bulb. If you see a K rating of 2700K-3000K you will be getting a warm/yellow bulb. A cool white bulb would be a Kelvin rating of 3500K-4100K. And a Daylight blue bulb is a rating of 5000K-6500K.

If you are looking to replace 40 watt incandescent bulbs, use 9-13 watt CFL bulbs. Use a 13-15 watt CFL to replace a 60 watt incandescent. For a 75 watt incandescent use an 18-25 watt CFL. And if you want to replace 100 watt incandescent bulbs look for the 23-30 watt CFLs.

Please remember to recycle all compact fluorescent bulbs. Some states forbid mixing used bulbs that contain mercury with solid waste trash. The reason is there is around 5 milligrams of mercury in one CFL bulb.

Places such as ACE Hardware, Orchard (OSH), IKEA and Home Depot will take your used green CFL products and dispose of them responsibly.

If it’s decorative lights you are after, try Energy Star qualified light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. These LEDs use up to 90% less energy than the same incandescent bulbs to produce exactly the same amount of light! I have heard that the power needed for only one 7 watt incandescent bulb could be used to power up to 140 LEDs!

Give the CFLs a try for inside and the LEDs for the outside. They will save you some good money and reduce your carbon footprint.

If you're interested in making your own power at home, then why don't you Try Earth4Energy For Free? Also, have a look at our in-depth Earth4Energy Review. Thanks for visiting!

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