Not long after we moved in, we noticed we were replacing the front porch lightbulbs surprisingly often. We even wondered if the sockets were bad. I was pleased to find compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) that were shaped like regular incandescent bulbs and we replaced the porch bulbs to save electricity. Happily, they are lasting a very long time. We've only taken them out to put in yellow bug CFLs for warm weather and then replaced them again with the white ones.
Later, we replaced the patio bulb with a CFL too. Later still, we replaced 14 lightbulbs in a fairly short time: ten of them were bathroom vanity lights! One site claimed that if you didn't leave the lights on for hours, it wasn't efficient to switch to CFLs. I think we're vain enough to get our money's worth ;-)
Weeks later, we replaced four more lightbulbs. And then a couple more. It's been 23 so far and we still have more to go! It's been tough trying to replace the chandelier bulbs that are on a dimmer, but hopefully soon the CFLs that claim to work on a dimmer will do so very well. For the ones we've been using, reducing the energy used while still enjoying nice lighting is a kick.
I bought some small spiral CFLs at Costco in bulk to put in the lamps where you don't see the bulb and more conventionally-shaped ones at Home Depot. Here are sites to help with choosing a low-energy lightbulb:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=632&campaign=mts
We are also becoming more conscious about turning out lights when we leave their area. To become more conscious of green opportunities like that, here is a Carbon Fast to do for 40 days (The Rt. Rev. James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, created it for Lent, but any 40 day period will do): http://www.tearfund.org/webdocs/Website/Churches/Carbon%20Fast.pdf You can sign up for 40 days of emails to help you stick with the Carbon Fast.
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