This Little Light of Mine

There's an old saying about good things which come in small packages. My postman brought me such a package not long ago from a surprising source. Who would have thought my local electric company could make me feel like a kid again?

But then your asking yourself, who in their right mind, gets excited about receiving a light bulb? Yep, that's right, they sent me a light bulb, two actually, and not just any ordinary light bulbs - Compact Florescent Light Bulbs.

I found myself humming the lyrics to This little light of mine all afternoon.

While my children may be too young to understand the significance of a light bulb, as a mother I appreciate a single light bulb as much as I do as saving a few dollars on my grocery bill each month. Of course, who can refuse something when its FREE!!

The light bulbs were the result of responding to a flyer sent to us after signing on as new customers at www.pplelectric.com. I opened them immediately and swapped out two of my regular incandescent bulbs and put in my new ones. The light was the same, bright, steady, 60 watts like we've always used. Except the difference I can't see looking at the shining light will come on my electic bill over the life time of use of the bulbs.

Who would have thought one little bulb could save me so much money, and create so much light using so little energy. CFL's (Compact Florescent Lights) use50-80% less energy than our regular incandescent bulbs making them enviromentally freindly. Just one bulb will keep 1/2 ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere. Doesn't really seem like a lot does it?

So what do you suppose would happen if we all ran out and bought just two energy saving light bulbs and swapped them with two of our old lights in our homes? We'd be able to power a city with 3 million people for a year or the equivlant to 2.6 million cars taken off the road. Even one bulb swapped out would save enough energy to turn off two power plants!

I immediately went out to Walmart. Just one little light, actually they came in a four packs, cost me $7.58. One little light bulb cost me just $1.90, and I won't have to change any of my light bulbs again for 7-10 years. YEARS!!! No more teetering on a chair with arm outstretched in the dark trying to replace a blown out globe at inappropriate moments of the day. Not only that, that little bulb is going to save me an estimated $38 during it's life time of use. Broken down, it's about fifty cents a day. Gosh, if you think of it like my kids do - a candy bar or a can of soda per day. But as a mother of three, I find there's another reward much greater than a candy bar, the money saved per year, is the energy savings it also produced.

But if your a mathmatician, like my husband, think of it this way. We have 22 lights in our home, and all have been replaced with new CFL's. 22 x $.50 a day is $11 a day, $33 a month, $ 396 a year. If each light is good for 10 years that's a total savings of $3,960 for my household.

How many lights are in your home?

It only takes one to start saving - saving money, and saving our environment to secure the future of our children for another generation to come.

So this little light of mine, well let's just say, I'm gonna let it shine!!