I was happy to hear that Australia has introduced legislation to gradually ban incandescent light bulbs in that country*. You remember incandescent bulbs, the ones perfected by Thomas Edison that use hundreds of watts to generate the same light as 11 to 25 watt compact fluorescent bulbs. If Australia follows through and actually eliminates the old bulbs, the energy savings would be huge. Household electricity bills would be reduced by as much as 60 percent, and Australia would eliminate almost four million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. The state of California, long the bellwether of environmental standards in North America, is considering a similar ban, and the state of New Jersey is converting all its government and public facilities over to compact fluorescents in the next three years. Ontario hopes to be the first Canadian province to follow suit*.

As an eco-citizen, I welcome their efforts, but I'm also a bit worried.

epochtimes.comepochtimes.comYou see, while I can't tell the difference in the light of compact fluorescent bulbs from incandescent ones, to me a lumen is just a unit of light energy, my family simply can't stand compact fluorescent light bulbs. As a result, there has been a long-running battle to introduce compact fluorescent light bulbs into our home. A bulb burns out; I replace it with an energy-efficient model, and wait for the fallout. Sometimes it takes a day or two, in more obscure locations a week or more, but eventually I hear "why is the light so dim in here" or "it seems that the light isn't as warm as it used to be." Then I must sheepishly confess that I replaced the incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent, and go on the defensive.

Until next time I can only hope that by the time the ban on incandescent bulbs comes north, light bulb manufacturers will have made their compact fluorescents "warmer." In the meantime I have found that a simple lampshade does the trick, creating a warm glow that keeps my family satisfied through the winter, and gives me enough time to play the trump card: our lower electricity bill.