National average for electricity in 2009 was 10.4 cents per one kilowatt-hour and 1.29 cents per one Therm of gas. Since one kilowatt-hour is equal to 3.412 therms, the electricity cost is 3.05 cents per Therm. So looks like the electricity was almost 2 ½ times more expensive than the natural gas.

According to Energy Information Administration (EIA), a US household uses on average 70 thousand cubic feet (CCF) of natural gas per year. This accounts to roughly 72,400 Therms per year. Doing the math using the average cost of gas for 2009, it accounts to $934 per year. The same amount of energy would cost $2,207 in electric power. Thus giving the yearly savings of $1,273 using natural gas versus electricity.

EIA is breaking down the numbers for natural gas usage into four US regions, Northeast, Midwest, South and West.  The highest natural gas usage was reported by the Midwest, 92 thousand CCF per household. The cost difference between the natural gas and electricity in this case is $1,664 per year per household in Midwest. The least usage of natural gas was reported on the West, 53 thousand CCF per household. The cost difference between natural gas and electricity in this case is $967 per year.

Unfortunately my neighborhood doesn’t have a gas line, but I think it might be worth the investment if one were to stick around their home for a few years.

One of the motivators for making this adjustment was the increase in energy bill over the prior couple of months. Usually our electric bill is under tolerable amount of $200, but in July and August of this year, it hit as high as $230. That’s when I decided to go ahead and turn off the old freezer in our hot garage. I am assuming that the freezer was on constantly, since I heard its buzzing sound every time I would pass by it, whether it was day or night. The freezer is quite old, the insulation is worn out, the poor thing had to work nonstop in order to compensate for 100 degree + temperature in our garage. And we had to pay for it!

Another thing I did, as I mentioned earlier, is I started rinsing my dishes and pots with cold water rather than warm, before putting them into the dishwasher. Same goes with washing my hands. Luckily, the “cold” water in Florida is still about 80F warm, so it was a very easy adjustment for me.

Because water has high heat capacity, meaning it takes a lot of energy to heat up, water heater is one of the largest energy consumers out of all of the household appliances. If you can reduce usage of your hot water, you can see the difference in your electric bill. If you live in colder areas, you might be able to see even greater difference in your electric bill. The downside of it is that, you’ll probably have to deal with rinsing your dishes in a 50 or 60-degree water, which may not be as easy to handle.

So when the new bill came, I was pleased. It was around $178! My husband didn’t believe me that turning off the garage freezer would make much difference, so it was nice to confirm by opinion, “See, I told you so!”

So is there a solution?

Apparently there is a company called Shat-R-Shield, that takes ordinary CFL bulbs and coats them with plastic shatterproof coating. Sadly their focus market is only industrial, like food-processing facilities, laboratories, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and food serving facilities, like restaurants and food preparation places.

I happened to call them to see if it would be possible for someone like me to make a purchase from them and the response was no.  They only sell in bulk to distributors, who then sell directly to the industries above.

So I started pocking and prodding their website trying to understand why this is not yet available to the general public. Apparently, the disposal procedure is not as easy for the coated bulbs as for regular CFLs. Regular CFLs can be simply dropped off at the special recycling places. But the coated CFLs need to be stripped off of the protective coating before they can be recycled.  So you either do it yourself, or you find a  recycling company that will do it for you.  The charge varies based on the type of bulb, but most fall under a dollar per bulb.

I also didn’t happen to ask about the cost of bulbs when I called Shat-R-Shield. The cost of final product might be higher than the average consumer would be willing to pay.  But I can only speculate on this for now.

Related Articles

CFL Bulbs And Mercury

How Much Will I Save By Replacing Incandescent With CFL Light Bulbs

Why am I doing it?

Well, obviously by turning off the freezer I will be able to eliminate a hefty source of energy consumption.  This will result in lower energy consumption, lower energy bill and less emissions from the power plant!

How much energy will I save?

Let’s see, my little freezer draws 5 amps of current and a voltage of 115 volts.  It is quite old, so assuming that it runs 50% of the time during cooler months here in Florida, I should be able to save

115V * 5A / 1000 * 30 days * 24 hrs * 50% = 207 kilowatt-hours per month of energy.

How much money will I save?

207 kilowatt-hours * $0.103 per kw-hour =  $21.32 per month

Not bad for unnecessary appliance!

What about summer months?  I’ll assume the freezer in on 75% of the time, since the temperature inside stuffy garage during Florida summer can easily reach 100+ degrees Fahrenheit. In this case I will save

310 kilowatt-hours of energy and $32 per month

Even better!  So bye bye freezer!

But when looking at it objectively, what carries a higher risk for the mercury exposure using CFL or incandescent lights?

The mercury is encapsulated in a small glass tube inside the bulb, and it’s not dangerous as long as the capsule stays whole.  Obviously accidents happen and light bulbs do break.  In this case mercury leaks out of the capsule.  If the bulb is off and cool when the capsule breaks, the mercury has ability to evaporate, but at a very slow pace. If you only have it sitting there exposed for a few minutes, the risk of exposure to airborne mercury is practically non-existent.   If the bulb is on or still hot while it breaks, some of the mercury will become airborne quicker because of high temperature inside the bulb.  In either case it is very important that you follow the proper guidelines on how to clean up broken CFL bulb.

If you are curious about how to clean up the mess after breaking CFL bulb, I found this step-by-step clean up procedure on Epa.gov:

Spills

What Never to Do with a Mercury Spill

• Never use a vacuum cleaner to clean up mercury (but see the “What to Do if a Fluorescent Light Bulb Breaks” section below for more specific instructions about vacuuming broken fluorescent light bulbs). The vacuum will put mercury into the air and increase exposure.
• Never use a broom to clean up mercury. It will break the mercury into smaller droplets and spread them.
• Never pour mercury down a drain. It may lodge in the plumbing and cause future problems during plumbing repairs. If discharged, it can cause pollution of the septic tank or sewage treatment plant.
• Never wash clothing or other items that have come in direct contact with mercury in a washing machine, because mercury may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage. Clothing that has come into direct contact with mercury should be discarded. By “direct contact,” we mean that mercury was (or has been) spilled directly on the clothing. For example:
  • if you broke a mercury thermometer and some of elemental mercury beads came in contact with your clothing, or
  • if you broke a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) so that broken glass and other material from the bulb, including mercury-containing powder, came into contact with your clothing.

  You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, like the clothing you happened to be wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.

• Never walk around if your shoes might be contaminated with mercury. Contaminated clothing can also spread mercury around.

What to Do if a Fluorescent Light Bulb Breaks

Before Clean-up: Air Out the Room

• Have people and pets leave the room, and don’t let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
• Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
• Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
• Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

• Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
• Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

• Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
• Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

• If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
• You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
• If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials

• Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
• Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
• Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Air Out the Room During and After Vacuuming

• The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window before vacuuming.

Even if they are not broken, CFL lights also need to be properly disposed of because of mercury. Throwing used CFLs into regular garbage is irresponsible because of high toxicity of mercury and the disposal locations can be found at this EPA Website.

So what are the plus sides of using CFL lights?

They are more efficient than the incandescent lights. They use about a quarter of energy of incandescent lights, therefore you pay less money to your electric company!

Not too many people know this, but traces of mercury along with other air pollutants are released with burning of fossil fuel.  Fossil fuel (like coal) is used by the power plants to create electricity.  The airborne mercury settles in the areas surrounding the power plant and nearby bodies of water.  That’s how we and the environment around us end up being exposed to the mercury.  So the point is, CFL’s create only a quarter of emissions when compared to the incandescent lights, including mercury.

So, back to my original question: what carries a higher risk for the mercury exposure, using CFL or incandescent lights?

We are already suffering the consequences of industrial pollution, like mercury contaminated fish, acid rain, oil spills.  Then I start thinking about my daughter, her kids and the later generations.  What is Earth going to look like then?  If we keep up with the current pollution speed (and I mean all the countries put together), how healthy are our kids, grand-kids, etc. are going to be? What do we and they have to look forward to?

So CFL bulbs carry a slight risk of mercury exposure only if the bulb breaks.  But in the long run, by not using CFLs the exposure to mercury is certainly 4x higher in the form of air pollution from the power plants.

So I cast a vote of switching to CFL light bulbs because I like to save money and the planet! If you want to know how much money you will save on your electric bill by switching to CFL lights, check out my post How Much Will I Save By Replacing Incandescent With CFL Light Bulbs.

Everybody wins right?

Basically, is it worth doing?

This question is individual for every household.  Some households spend a lot of energy on lighting and some don’t.

Here is an example based on my home.  I estimated my monthly energy savings if I were to replace my incandescent bulbs with the CFL bulbs.  I’m not counting the existing fluorescent lights we use in the kitchen, since I’m not planning to replace them.

Here is what I did:

1. I checked out what wattage bulbs we use in our light fixtures throughout the house.
2. I estimated how many hours per week each light fixture is ON.
3. I used this conversion chart taken from www.energystar.gov to find what substitute CFL light bulbs I need.
   
4. I calculated how much money I would save on my monthly energy bill by replacing incandescent lights with the CFL lights.  Here are my findings:

You can create the same chart either by hand or by using my spreadsheet to estimate your savings.

Once you find out your energy savings, you can check out how much it would cost to replace the incandescent lights.  Walmart.com and lowes.com have large selections of CFL light bulbs.  I estimated that I would have to spend about $70 to replace all of my bulbs to CFLs.  I’m sure as the time passes they will get less expensive.

One thing to keep in mind is that CFL lights last longer than the incandescent lights.  It’s a definite saving!  I love this table I found, it summarizes all the important attributes of LED, incandescent and CFL lights.

You can find out how much power your washer uses by checking out Find Energy Use by Appliance. So here are some tips:

• Choose a cycle with cold rinse, rather than warm or hot rinse.  It is not the “washing” part that takes a lot of water, it is the “rinsing” part.  So washing in hot or warm water won’t consume nearly as much energy as rinsing in hot or warm water.
• Choose a cycle with automatic temperature sensor.  This way the washer will use appropriate amount of cold water to accommodate for the required temperature setting, potentially saving energy on hot water use.
• Try to maximize clothes load every time you use a laundry machine.

• Set water heater’s temperature at no higher than 120F, especially if you don‘t have a temperature sensor on your dishwasher or clothes washer. Here is why, it takes 1 kilowatt-hour to heat up 10 gallons of water from 80F to 120F. If your water heater’s thermostat is set at 140F, it will take 1.46 kilowatt-hour to heat up the same 10 gallons of water. That is almost one and half times more energy for the same amount of water. If your dishwasher does not have a temperature sensor, it will use the same amount of water from your water heater, whether its temperature is 120F or 140F. Most dishwashers have a minimum water temperature requirement of 120F, so any temperature above 120F would not make a difference in cleanliness of dishes.
• If you have to rinse your dishes before you put them into the dishwasher, rinse them with cold  water. Cold water does not require energy input.
• Run your dishwasher full.  The amount of energy used doesn’t change based on the load size.
• If you don’t like the idea of rinsing dishes with cold water, rinse them with warm water but don’t open the faucet all the way.  Open it just enough to get some flow and it will be just as effective as having the faucet fully open.  It will significantly reduce your hot water use.  Here is a test you can do.  All you need is a bucket of known volume (they usually come in 3- or 5-gallon sizes) and a stop watch.  Place the empty bucket in your kitchen sink, turn on the faucet at the same flow you usually rinse or wash your dishes and use a stopwatch to time how long it takes to fill up the bucket.  Then do the same experiment with using the low flow.  Here is what I got from my test:

1. The first time it took me just under 1 minute to fill up at 3-gallon bucket, Assuming that it takes you 10 minutes to rinse/wash your dishes, with the average water temperature of 100F, you will use up 30 gallons (3 gal * 10 min = 30 gal) of water at 100F. It will take 1.46 kilowatt-hours total to rinse your dishes (assuming your cold water is 80F, if it is lower, it would take more energy).
2. When I timed my low flow conditions, it took me 8 minutes to fill up the same bucket. This time my flow was 3gal/8min = 3/8 gallons per minute. For 10 minutes I would use 30/8 = 3.75 gallons total. It would only take me 0.183 kilowatt-hours to rinse my dishes. That is (1.46/0.183= 7.98) almost 8 times less energy use!

As a general guideline for the dishwasher use, most energy is spent on the hot water.  The mechanical operation of the dishwasher itself takes very low energy.  To find out how much energy your dishwasher uses, see my post Find Energy Use by Appliance.  Dishwashers use between 4 and 6 gallons of water per cycle.  Energy Star dishwashers use 4 gallons and non-Energy Star use 6 gallons.

So, how long would it take you to do a dishwasher full of plates by hand?  10 minutes, 20 minutes?  Using average water flow of 2 gallons per minute, you would use up to 20 gallons of water in 10 minutes and 40 gallons in 20 minutes.  Unless you’re using only cold water, using the dishwasher seems to be a more economical option to me!  And it’s a time saver too!!

First I evaluated how much money I would need to invest in the new LED Christmas lights.  We usually decorate the roof line on the front of our house with white icicle lights.  We use six strands of the incandescent lights which come in a set of 200 lights and are 9 feet in length.  Their cost is $10 at Wal-Mart.  I found a set of 70 LED lights that are 9 feet long for $16.

I use couple of strands of multi-colored mini lights on the bushes in the front of the house.  And the Christmas tree gets couple of strands as well.  The incandescent lights come in 51-foot strands and cost $10.  I found LEDs of the same kind that come in 24-foot strands and cost $16.  Looks like for each incandescent strand, I would have to purchase two LED strands.

So far I will have to invest $124 more up front for the LED lights.

Second, I looked at how much money I would have to spend on each kind for the energy use.  I found that if I run the lights for 6 hours per day, every day for six weeks, I would spend $17 on the incandescent lights and $2 on the LED lights.

Third I looked at how often I would have to replace the LED lights versus the incandescent lights.  LED lights manufacturers claim that they would last 50,000-100,000 hours.  Since I would only use my Christmas lights 250 hours per season, these LED lights should easily outlive me, my kids and possibly my grand kids.  On the other hand, I will have to replace the incandescent lights every five years.

Taking all of this into consideration, looks like the difference in initial investment for the LED lights will pay for itself within 5 years.  This graph shows how much money I would spend on each kind of Christmas lights within 10 years:

Looks like if I keep using the incandescent lights I would spend almost $500 in the next 10 years, and I would spend half of that using LED lights.  As this pattern continues, the difference will triple in 20 years and quadruple in 30 and so on.

So what am I going to do this year?

I decided to keep using the incandescent lights, since we already have them.  Investment of $224 on the LED lights is a little steep for me this season. But as my short-lived incandescent lights die off within the next couple of years, I will more likely replace them with the LED.  This will also give me some time to find out how my neighbor’s LED lights are holding on!

Washing Dishes

• Set water heater’s temperature at no higher than 120F, especially if you don‘t have a temperature sensor on your dishwasher or clothes washer. Here is why, it takes 1 kilowatt-hour to heat up 10 gallons of water from 80F to 120F. If your water heater’s thermostat is set at 140F, it will take 1.46 kilowatt-hour to heat up the same 10 gallons of water. That is almost one and half times more energy for the same amount of water. If your dishwasher does not have a temperature sensor, it will use the same amount of water from your water heater, whether its temperature is 120F or 140F. Most dishwashers have a minimum water temperature requirement of 120F, so any temperature above 120F would not make a difference in cleanliness of dishes.
• If you have to rinse your dishes before you put them into the dishwasher, rinse them with cold  water. Cold water does not require energy input.
• If you don’t like the idea of rinsing dishes with cold water, rinse them with warm water but don’t open the faucet all the way.  Open it just enough to get some flow and it will be just as effective as having the faucet fully open.  It will significantly reduce your hot water use.  Here is a test you can do.  All you need is a bucket of known volume (they usually come in 3- or 5-gallon sizes) and a stop watch.  Place the empty bucket in your kitchen sink, turn on the faucet at the same flow you usually rinse or wash your dishes and use a stopwatch to time how long it takes to fill up the bucket.  Then do the same experiment with using the low flow.  Here is what I got from my test:

1. The first time it took me just under 1 minute to fill up at 3-gallon bucket, Assuming that it takes you 10 minutes to rinse/wash your dishes, with the average water temperature of 100F, you will use up 30 gallons (3 gal * 10 min = 30 gal) of water at 100F. It will take 1.46 kilowatt-hours total to rinse your dishes (assuming your cold water is 80F, if it is lower, it would take more energy).
2. When I timed my low flow conditions, it took me 8 minutes to fill up the same bucket. This time my flow was 3gal/8min = 3/8 gallons per minute. For 10 minutes I would use 30/8 = 3.75 gallons total. It would only take me 0.183 kilowatt-hours to wash my dishes. That is (1.46/0.183= 7.98) almost 8 times less energy use!

To find out how much energy your dishwasher uses, see my post Find Energy Use by Appliance. Dishwashers use between 4 and 6 gallons of water per cycle.  Energy Star dishwashers use 4 gallons and non-Energy Star use 6 gallons.

Showering

Average flow from the shower head is 2.5 gallons per minute.  So if you are taking a 10-minute shower, you are using 25 gallons of warm water.  It takes 1.3 kilowatt-hours to heat up this much water from 80F to 100F and double that if the cold water temperature is 60F.

• Now days market is flooded with all kinds of low-flow shower heads.  My shower head has a lever that adjusts the water flow by adjusting the size of the holes for the water to flow through. Low-flow shower heads use up to half of the flow of regular shower.
• Another no-brainer is to take shorter showers!

Washing Laundry
Average clothes washer uses 40 gallons of water per cycle.  Your energy use will depend on the cycle’s water temperature.  The hotter the temperature, the more energy it will use.  So here are some tips:

• Choose a cycle with cold rinse, rather than warm or hot rinse.  It is not the “washing” part that takes a lot of water, it is the “rinsing” part.  So washing in hot or warm water won’t consume nearly as much energy as rinsing in hot or warm water.
• The operation of washer itself does not consume a lot of energy.  You can find out how much power your washer uses by checking out Find Energy Use by Appliance.

As a general guideline for the water heater, if you are leaving town for few days, it is good to turn off the water heater as well.  This way it will not use the energy to maintain the set temperature.  In the perfect system, all of the heat would stay within boundaries of the heater.  This is not the case in the real world, some of the heat does escape to the surroundings.  If you go and touch your water heater, more likely it is going to be warm (if it is on).  This is the heat escaping to the surroundings.