The expert: Danny Seo, JCPenney's official Green Living Partner, championing their eco-friendly product designation program called "Simply Green," and host of HGTV's new eco-design show, "Red Hot & Green." Danny just launched the Simmons Natural Care by Danny Seo bedding collection and has also partnered with Method Home cleaning products.
The product: energy efficient lightbulbs
What I want: We all know that those funny-looking compact fluorescent lightbulbs are good for the environment since they use around 1/10th the energy and last up to 8X longer.
I must have: Price, brand names I trust; I look at the lumen rating (measurement of illumination), size and shape of bulbs.
What I hate: It's too bad you can't test bulbs in the store to see what the light color is. Even though many of the CFL bulbs look the same, they can each give off totally different color outputs. Some are super bright white (these make a room feel like you're in a hospital ward), others give a nice yellow-y glow and mimic a reading light. Compare the lumens rating on your favorite old-fashioned incandescent bulbs (usually around 1000 lumens) and look for a CFL bulb that's the same color.
Savvy shopper: Buy the value packs of CFL bulbs and try to get them on sale. Use exposed CFL bulbs in little used areas like basements and laundry rooms to save money on electricity. Those yellow-coated CFL outdoor lights are great for summertime use as the yellow coating helps detract insects like mosquitoes from bothering you.
My pick: GE's dimmable CFL bulbs. Even though it doesn't do a very good job dimming (I have yet to find a CFL bulb that dims well), the color output is really fantastic: I have people come over to my house and express surprise that I don't use CFL bulbs in my lamps, but when they peek under the lampshade they're flabbergasted that my bulbs really are CFLs (12 pack of 13w bulbs--60 watt equivalent, $19.76, Wal-Mart).
Next best thing: If you can't find the GE dimmables or if you're stuck with harsh, bright white bulbs that you've already bought, consider swapping out a light-colored lampshade for something darker to help diffuse the light better.
as told to Laurie Squire
No comments:
Post a Comment