Sustainability Studies student Stephen Dubree reflects on his family’s path towards sustainability in a series of pieces that will take readers on a tour of his home and lifestyle.
“Sustainability does not follow the one and done philosophy, rather the principles of constant renewal; one building upon another.”
I have purchased and installed LED bulbs and fixtures for the entire house. The cost for this project was $ 724.89, which included thirty-two LED bulbs and three new fixtures. Replacing the bulbs and fixtures was quite easily done during one evening after returning home from class without any additional labor. Admittedly after the first trip to buy our materials we realized we failed to include the exterior bulbs in our calculations; an issue we quickly remedied. Already we have noticed the brighter light emanating from the bulbs which is nice for reading. In fact, we actually were able to downsize the wattage level in many of the fixtures because the increase in lumens was too much. We are benefitting from the new lights in that we require fewer lights being on to achieve the similar amount of lights in the room. Of course, this translates into savings both in terms of energy consumption and life expectancy of the bulbs itself. One side note: the LED bulbs seem to burn a bit hotter than standard incandescent bulbs which is good in the colder months, but we may have to adjust some things when the summer months come around again.
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