Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Fast

I've written several blogs regarding the use of LEDs. Swapping incandescent bulbs for LEDs will save you money, free some weekend time, give you a fast payback, a solid rate of return and reduce your carbon footprint better than any other technology. While there are federal mandates for this switch, people are moving slowly towards the swap. Many people bought a huge supply of incandescent light bulbs, putting off the swap. Others are apprehensive of the LED technology and still others don't like the color.

If the benefits are so good, why isn't this being pushed harder? I believe that it is not sexy enough and it is low on politicians priority (inspite of enacting a law for the switch) beacause they don't control the process (rightfully so). It is not stimulating party conversation. It is far cooler to be able to say that I put PV panels on my house or that I bought an electric car, rather than saying I replaced all my incandescent light bulbs with LED light bulbs - boring.

Yes, while it may be boring, look at my previous blogs showing the energy savings that my household has generated. These are real. As a scientist, I was skeptical. I set a goal of $5.00 per LED bulb and employing them from high use/high traffic areas of the house to low/no traffic areas. It took two years to hit the sales, and chart the results. Everything else remained constant. There are four people in the house, with two of them being teenagers.

The move to LEDs by every household in the US, now that LEDs average below $5.00/bulb, should be championed by environmentalists. So, what is the simple math for energy savings by switching from incandescent to LED. According to Statista, the number of households in the US in 2016 that occupy a housing unit is 125.82 million. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2015, the average kilowatt hour (kWh) consumed by each household (average size is 1,094 square feet) is 901 kWh per month or 10,812 kWh per year. Multiplying the number of housing units by the average amount of electricity consumed per household of 10,812 kWh per year is 1,351,500,000,000 kWh per year for electricity. Again, according to the EIA, the average household uses 10% of electricity consumed for lighting. Multiply 10% by 1,351,500,000,000 kWh and the result is 135,150,000,000 kWh per year for lighting. I experienced a 40% reduction in the use of electricity from my switch (most of our electricity consumption is for lighting, followed by the refrigerator, followed by the stove and lastly the AC - which is only on in the evening during the summer). So lets assume that there is a 30% reduction from the switch, 135,150,000,000 multiplied by a 30% savings is 40,545,000,000 kWh savings for the US. According to the EIA, a bituminous coal-fired power plant generated 2.07 pounds of CO2 per kWh. Multiplying 40,545,000,000 kWh by 2.07 pounds of CO2 per kWh equals 83,928,150,000 pounds of CO2 per kWh saved during a year.