If someone knocks on your door and offers you a free light bulb, it may not be a scam. It could be Seattle City Light. Much of the Central District has been added to the utility’s Powerful Neighborhoods program, which aims to educate people about how they can save energy.
The program in the neighborhood will go from March 28 through May. From City Light:
City Light’s Powerful Neighborhoods conservation program is moving into a new area – the North Central District of Seattle. Program representatives will be going door to door to offer free compact fluorescent light bulbs, energy-saving showerheads, and faucet aerators. The program targets customers who may not have taken advantage of our conservation programs, including senior citizens, non-English-speaking households, and low-income customers. The new area is bordered by Denny Way/East Madison Street to the north, East Yesler Way to the south, Broadway to the west, and 34th Avenue to the east.
http://millerparkseattle.blogspot.com/2008/06/compact-fluore
However, note that while old-fashioned lightbulbs only turn 10% of the energy into light, you get the rest as heat which (let’s be honest here) we can use for quite a bit of the year round here! Want to get them to reduce carbon emissions? 90% of Seattle’s electricity comes from hydroelectric dams, so that’s barely an issue.
I’d love to see some sort of recycling class for low income, senior and immigrant residents too ..
I would like such a class also. Am an avid reccycler, but there are some borderline items (recycle or kitchen waste?) and similar questions that I’d like to ask.
We have a box full of burned out CFLs and it would be nice if there were more places to recycle them. Currently we save them up until it is unbearable and then make the special trip to the haz-waste site.
Regarding home heating from light bulbs:
Lights are usually positioned to illumiate what we need to see, and are often in the worst place to distribute heat. For example, when a light is in a recessed ceiling can, because heat rises much can be lost through the ceiling.
In the summer, they overheat the home making air conditioners work harder. That’s more of a problem in warmer climates.
But…in our climate, the best energy efficiency is realized when an efficient bulb is outside or in an unheated room.
And, given the energy efficiency of my home a 100 Watt bulb in each of 5 rooms would overheat my house in all but temperatures below 40 degrees.
I believe hardware stores – like Lowes take them back – much closer than the haz-waste site. They also take cell phones and rechargeable batteries.
Just give them to the cashier
I’ve taken mine to Bartell’s too. The store I go to (Harvard Mkt) has a special bin at the end of one of the aisles, so you don’t have to bother the cashier. Probably other stores do too.
When they first came out, CFL’s were touted to last for up to 7 years. Yet, we are already faced with recycling the old ones. So not only is the light they give off ugly, but we’re expected to go extra steps to discard the used ones. For these reasons, I refuse to buy them. They’re total crap!