Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Lowering the High Cost of Electric in Hawaii – The almighty light bulb

The easiest and quickest way to attack our electricity usage and lower our monthly bill is with energy saving light bulbs. We bought GE Energy Smart bulbs, $15 for 5 bulbs, at ACE hardware store in Hilo. On the box GE claims you can save $59 per bulb over 5 years. After further package investigation, we found that the $59 savings is calculated based on 10 cents per Kilowatt hour. We are paying 39 cents here in Hawaii. Plugging 40 cents into the calculation, our savings will be $236 over 5 years per bulb. The package of 5 bulbs would save us $1180 over five years. Talk about a deal - $15 outlay for an $1180 return. If only our investments did that well.

We replaced our 60 watt light bulbs with 26 watt bulbs, each with the light equivalency of a 100 watt regular bulb. We were also able to remove the black heat arresters from the track lights due to the lower wattage and get additional light in our very dark living room. So in addition to the savings mentioned above, we have a great deal more light.
One more step towards reducing our monthly bills.

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