LED lighting comes indoors

My one green thing today: Replaced a conventional lightbulb with an energy efficient model, and how! We easily screwed an LED light bulb, which uses 80% less energy than an incandescent one, into the lovely old green glass leaf pendant hanging in the stairwell. Its warm light many tiny light efficient diode cells gives it the look of a glowing golden beehive. It uses only 8 watts to shine as strong as the 75 watt incandescent we replaced, and, with a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 3000K (kelvins), it produces the same warm glow. With a lifetime of 50,000 hours, our LED will last 10 years if it burns 12 hours a day, and we use it for about half that much time.

In the 20 years of use we can expect from it, we'd save about $200, so the $70 (gulp!) bulb should pay for itself at least three times over, given Hawaii's energy costs, which, at 26.71 cents per kilowatt-hour, are the highest in the nation, nearly treble the national average of 10.54 cents per kwh.

Oh, and it burns at room temperature, so it won't heat the house, and it's mercury-free.

For more about energy saving lightbulbs, electronics, and appliances, and healthy green living tips and choices for food, water, home cleaning and decorating, recycling, personal care,apparel and transportation, see my new book, Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices.

For more seasonal green living news and shopping lists, see my home page, GreenerPenny.com. Ask me questions there, or in a comment to this blog. I will respond!

To find the kilowatt hour cost in your state, go to http://eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html

Our Array Lighting Par 30 LED from Nexxus was a gift from our son, who does energy research. Its casing is made from recycled plastic.