Choose the Right (Compact Fluorescent) Light

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent light bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year (as well as more than $600 million in annual energy costs), while preventing the greenhouse-gas equivalent of the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. Sounds like a no-brainer, but it's important to pick the right bulb, so you can easily match the light output and quality from your old bulb with about one-third of its energy use.

In addition to matching the lumen output (that's the quantity of light) with your old incandescent bulb, we recommend looking for the best shade of white light, called "correlated color temperature," (CCT) for your needs. Color temperature, measured in kelvins (K), works like this: lower kelvin numbers mean the light has a warmer (yellowish) color, while higher kelvin numbers mean the light has a cooler (bluish) color.The majority of CFLs available on the market offer soft or warm white light (about 2700K), which is comparable to an incandescent bulb. This color range works well in most residential settings and enhances warmer colors, like red, yellow and orange, found in your home.

CFLs are also available in higher kelvin color temperatures, ranging from 3500K all the way up to 6500K, and will emit more white to bluish-white light. These products are usually identified with the terms "bright white," "natural" or "daylight."

Picking the right color is getting easier all the time, as more and more manufacturers are putting this information on their bulbs' packaging. Check out Energy Star for more info on where to get qualified CFLs.

Difficulty level: Easy