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How many people does it take to change a light bulb

Written by: Libe Chacos

Article Overview: I was told about a recent article in the Weekend Australian Magazine. The article looked at a study by the University of Chicago. that found that if we excluded all animal based foods, including dairy and eggs, from our diet, that change would benefit the environment more than buying an eco-friendly car. Apparently 23% of a typical Australian diet comes from animal sources and so generates almost 1.5 tonnes more greenhouse gases per person per year than a vegan diet of the same calories.

How many people does it take to change a light bulb

The article said that in comparison switching to a hybrid car saves just over a tonne.
I went to a carbon neutral websites to have a look at how much greenhouse gas they say will be offset.

Using the carbon emissions calculator at http://www.carbonneutral.com.au/

And average statistics of travelling 14,000 km per year, you would save 1.68 tonnes of CO2 for converting a medium petrol car to hybrid.

There is another way to save CO2, and actually save money along the way while maintaining to choose the type of lifestyle you are comfortable with.
According to www.savingsguide.com.au if you replace a bulb that you use for around 3 hours a night, then you save about $25 a year on your annual electricity bill. And up to $250 in electricity bills over its lifetime. They also say if you replace 10 old-style bulbs in your house that you use for 2 hours a day with low energy bulbs, you will save around a quarter tonne of carbon dioxide each year.
And for the less motivated of us , low energy light bulbs save you time and effort. Because they last around 10 times longer than normal bulbs, when you switch to low energy bulbs you won’t have to get the ladder out so often to replace bulbs that have blown.
Replacing a 100W incandescent bulbs with a 20W CFL (compact fluorescent lights) will save around 45 kg of CO2 per year

These calculations are based on a running cost of 10 cents per unit of electricity and approximately 1460 hours of running time for your light over a year.
The Following Table comes form The Your Home Technical Manual, and shows that you save money by being energy efficient with your lighting.

20 WCFL 100 WIncandescent 65WHalogen
Running cost over10,000 hours* $20 $100 $75**
Average life 10,000 hours 1,000 hours 2,000 hours
Purchase cost $25 1 lamp $5 10 bulbs @ 50c $20 5 lamps @ $4
Total cost $45 $105 $95
* Based on 10 cents per unit of electricity,
** Includes magnetic transformer losses.

Even though lighting only accounts for around 9% of Greenhouse Gas emissions and 5% of electrical use in the average Australian Home, it provides a great opportunity to save energy, CO2 output and money.

According to the Australian Greenhouse Office, each year electricity used for lighting an average Australian home generates around three quarters of a tonne of greenhouse gas and costs around $100.


By using CFL’s we can save up to 80% of our lighting costs and that’s around 600kg of CO2.

At a grander scale what does this mean
Light Globe Switch Could Close The World’s Nuclear Plants
In an article I read at http://www.earthgarden.com.au/bt.html I was informed that the world’s reliance on incandescent light globes drains more power than is produced by all the world’s 441 nuclear plants.

If every old light globe were replaced with an energy-efficient one, it would avoid more than 16,000 million tonnes of CO2 between now and 2030. The equivalent would be to take every car in the world today off the road for six years, while also saving $3500 billion through lower energy and maintenance bills over the next 25 years.

The article went on to say that Australians spend $2.5 billion a year on lighting, which accounts for 10% of overall electricity consumption and 25 million tonnes of the country’s annual Greenhouse gas emissions.

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Article Tags: average statistics, carbon dioxide, carbon emissions calculator, co2, compact fluorescent lights, electricity bill, electricity bills, greenhouse gas, hybrid car, incandescent bulbs, ladder, lamps, light bulbs, low energy, petrol car, running cost, running time, tonne, tonnes, unit of electricity



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