Fast facts

Fast Facts about Fluorescent Lighting
Fluorescent lighting is a misunderstood and underutilized energy-efficient option for homes and small businesses. Modern fluorescent lighting offers significant lighting and cost benefits over traditional incandescent bulbs.

Cost effective
Although initially more expensive, compact fluorescent bulbs last three to ten times longer than incandescent, reducing lighting electricity costs and usage by up to 75 percent and reducing the frequency and cost of replacing burned out bulbs. Furthermore, local energy providers are currently offering rebates on the purchase of fluorescent bulbs reducing the cost to switch.

Seattle City Light Rebates: Seattle City Light’s $mart Business Program is designed to provide financial incentives to small businesses for replacing existing inefficient lighting with approved energy efficient lighting equipment. Rebates range from $25 to $65 per fixture for replacement of existing lamps or fixtures with new efficient ones.

Puget Sound Energy Rebates: Puget Sound Energy offers a number of rebates for both residential and commercial customers. Rebates for homeowners include $3 Energy Star compact fluorescent bulb coupons, and $10-30 lighting controls and fixtures rebates for all commercial electric customers and $3-55 lighting rebates for small business electric customers.

Better light
Modern fluorescent lighting is not what most people imagine. Unlike the cool white light typically seen in schools and offices, modern compact fluorescent light is close to the "warmth" of incandescents. Compact fluorescents with electronic ballasts light instantly and don't hum or flicker like other fluorescents.*

Attractive and compatible
The compact fluorescent bulbs available today screw into regular sockets and come in a variety of styles to fit most fixtures, including decorator bulbs.

Energy-efficient
Compact fluorescents emit the same light for about one-fourth the energy of an incandescent, and last more than 7,500 hours— about 10 times longer than an incandescent.*

Environmentally smart
If you replace an incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent, you'll save the equivalent of about 600 pounds of coal over the life of the bulb. This cuts emissions of CO2, nitrogen oxides and sulfur – gases responsible for the greenhouse effect and acid rain – by 65 to 70 percent.*

Did you know?
If every U.S. household replaced just one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent the energy saved would be the equivalent of that generated by one large power plant running all year.*

*Source: Seattle City Light