Six great reasons

1. Immediate savings

Energy efficient bulbs start reducing your electricity bills from the moment you install them. They cost a little extra (maybe $6 extra) but, add the energy saving to the cost of the replacements you’d have to buy for your incandescent bulbs, they save you 15 times the original amount – which is an excellent investment in anyone’s terms. See how much can you save and what it means in your home.

2. Long life

Energy efficient bulbs last literally years longer. You save on the cost of replacements – and all the hassles of getting up on the ladder, chair or table to change them.

• The average traditional incandescent lasts 1,000 hours. At average usage of three hours a day, that’s around a year
• One of the new generation halogens will last twice that – 2,000 hours or nearly two years
• The minimum rated lifespan of a quality CFL is six thousand hours, or close to 6 years. Some newer models are rated up to 15,000 hours.
• Good quality LEDs can last much, much longer than incandescent bulbs with rated life spans of up to 25,000 hours or over 20 years of light from a single bulb.

3. Long-term savings

Reducing the home lighting bills nationally will postpone the need for costly new power projects and ultimately help keep electricity tariffs down.

A 33% reduction would save as much energy as Tauranga and Mt Maunganui require – and that’s readily achievable. A 66% reduction would save over 1,002 GWh – ads much as the entire Nelson/Marlborough region uses.

A saving like that could make a huge difference for our country.

4. Light quality

Independent Consumer research showed that quality CFLs actually give better light than the equivalent incandescent.

In our own RightLight Challenge we found over two thirds of people either couldn’t tell the difference or guessed incorrectly when asked which of two rooms was lit by energy efficient bulbs.

18% had no preference for one light over the other, while 49% actually preferred the light from the energy efficient bulb

5. It’s good for the planet

Simply replacing one standard incandescent bulb with one equivalent CFL can, over the life of the bulb, keep half a tonne of CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Switching to energy efficient bulbs also means a net reduction in the amount of mercury in the environment.

6. They look good

Today’s energy efficient lights come in all different shapes, sizes and are suitable for a huge range of applications. When we showed RightLight Challenge participants a range of what’s available these days nearly nine out of ten were surprised at the options – you probably will