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Green Living Blog: How many editors does it take to change a lightbulb?

Canadian Living
Culture & Entertainment

Green Living Blog: How many editors does it take to change a lightbulb?

Green Living Blog logo After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes. Today's story is courtesy of Christina Anson Mine, managing editor at Canadian Living.
Incandescent bulbs, I wish I knew how to quit you!Just like Jack in Brokeback Mountain, I can't seem to tear myself away from my taboo love. There's something so warm, so comforting about the soft light of incandescents that I find myself drifting back to them every time I start flirting with more energy-efficient bulbs. I know I should be going greener, but I just can't help myself. Most of the eco-friendly changes I've made have been easy – and they've stuck. Taking the bus to work, driving my ultra-low-emissions car, buying organic and local whenever possible and logical – all of these have been a piece of cake. But cleaning up my environmental act and switching to CFLs or LEDs is tough. There's nothing romantic about the blinding, blue-tinged, police-interrogation-room light of LEDs or the flickery yellow of CFLs. I think it was my choice of bulbs at the start of my quest for greener light that did me in. A few years ago, when CFLs were new, I had no idea what I was looking at. "Eleven watts for 60 watts of light?!" I cried at my bewildered husband. "Honey, get a cart!" They were awful. Those cheap little 11-watters were so dim that you'd have to have a chandelier full of them – which totally defeats the purpose. Secondly, even if you did have a hundred, they bathe the room in a sickly yellow light that makes you feel like you're sitting in a can of waxed beans. They just weren't worth the eye strain and the malaise they induced. Or so I thought. phillips lightbulbRecently, my green guilt got to me. My parents had switched to CFLs and were raving about how much better they had become and how much energy they were saving. So I headed to Home Depot and picked up a new bulb made by Phillips that promised the same energy savings but light that evoked something found in nature, not a hospital corridor. We picked up a 16-watt CFL to replace a 65-watt one we had in one of the potlights downstairs. I was skeptical, but my husband gamely screwed it in and flipped the switch. It took a minute to warm up, but the light was nearly indistinguishable from that of its incandescent neighbours. Side-by-side, they looked almost identical. Eureka! Now that we've found an alternative that works, we're planning on putting in CFLs whenever an incandescent burns out. We've got a couple going now, and the rest should burn out within the next year or so. It spreads out the cost – those good CFLs are not cheap – and gives me a chance to say a long goodbye to my secret love.
What do you think of compact fluorescents? Have you started making a change, and have you found a brand that works for you? Share your comments below.Today's code word: bulbs. Read more: • Save energy (and money!) in your homeTop 10 ways to save energy in your kitchen

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Green Living Blog: How many editors does it take to change a lightbulb?

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