October 7, 2012 - Change a Light Day

(First Sunday of October)

Of course we want to try to conserve energy every day of every year. Remember to unplug appliances and chargers while they aren't being used (such as toasters and phone chargers); walk, bike, or use public transit when possible; turn out lights that aren't needed. Today is a special day to get energy saving lightbulbs and update all your light fixtures into energy-leaner, greener versions of themselves.

According to the Energy Star website, if every American home replaced just one old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs with a lightbulb that has earned the Energy Star, we would save enough energy "to light 3 million homes for a year, save about $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to those from about 800,000 cars." 

Wow!

So how about if all of us replaced all (or almost all) our lightbulbs with Energy Star bulbs? What a lot of savings that would be!

Together, with all of us pitching in and doing just a little, we can end up doing a lot.

By the way...

The Energy Star rating is given to products by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  It's not just for lightbulbs! The official website lists large kitchen appliances, washers, computers, air conditioners, televisions, and many more products that have earned Energy Stars!

Also on this date:

World Smile Day 

Anniversary of the invention of the bar code