Something has been bothering me for weeks. I got somethin stuck in my craw, powerful bad. So what, on this fine earth day, is bothering me so much?? It’s this.

I took these pictures a couple weeks ago in a bathroom near where I work. These bulbs were wasting so much energy as heat that they were burning black soot marks on the ceiling of the bathroom. I have been thinking about this so much because it is the perfect example of how we ignore problems even when they are staring us right in the face.

Even though these bulbs are burning rings into the celing no one seemed to be doing anything about it. I use this bathroom a lot to change my bike clothing, so for that last couple weeks I have been staring this problem in the face, and doing nothing. Every day I say to myself “are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?” Today on earth day I decided to act.

Using my super ninja like skills I went to my local store and purchased four CFL light bulbs. I then waited till the most oprotune moment (when I had to pee) to strike! I snuck the bulbs in my hoody pockets and using a wad of toilet paper removed all four nasty old fashion bulbs. They were still very hot to the touch and nearly burned my fingers several times. No one ever said this was going to be painless.

I felt that I might need to explain to the owners of the bathroom why their bulbs were suddenly switched (they might be sad) so I left them this note.

Happy Earth Day!

You might notice that something has changed. We have gone and removed your old fashion (and by the looks of the black ceilings dangerous) light bulbs. We did this because we care about the Earth, and we wanted to save you some money. You can thank us later.

The 4 light bulbs that used to be in this space used a staggering amount of energy, which costs you a lot of money. That energy comes from burning coal and oil, this leads to global warming, high asthma rates, reliance on foreign oil, and did we mention it costs you a lot of money, bummer!

Each of the old light bulbs was 60 watts. That means that when all 4 of them were on this tiny bathroom was using 240 watts!. At current electricity prices (around 7 Cents a KW/H) leaving these lights on for an hour would cost you 2 cents. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but consider how often they are accidentally left on all night, or how often someone forgets to turn them off all weekend, or even how often these bulbs burn out. It adds up.

These new bulbs are each 13 watts. That means that when all 4 of them are on you are only using 52 watts. At current electricity prices leaving them all on for an hour would cost you less than a penny. Not bad huh. We just cut your energy bill by more than one hundred percent!

These new bulbs should last you for at least 5 years, so you will be getting this energy savings long into the future. Please remember to buy energy efficient bulbs when these finally burn out. Happy earth day, enjoy your new energy efficient bathroom!

Old Bulbs:

• 60 watts each
• 240 watts total
• Cost to run lights for one hour 2 cents
• Lifetime of bulbs 2,000 hours
• Cost over lifetime 30 dollars
• Lifetime in days 83 days
• Cost to leave on for one year: $132
  (not including cost of new bulbs)
• Burning the roof because of heat

New Bulbs:

• 13 watts each
• 52 watts total
• Cost to run lights for one hour .003 cents
• Lifetime of bulbs 10,000 hours
• Cost over lifetime 30 dollars
• Lifetime in days 416.5 days
• Cost to leave on for one year: $26
• Are cool so they won’t char the ceiling

It felt good to make a positive change (even if it was a small one). I encourage all of you to go out and do the same. Sure it might be technically illegal but so what. If this is wrong I don’t want to be right! Happy earth day everyone, go out there and be a guerrilla efficiency commando, and make the world a better place.