To Change a Light Bulb (Gwen Moritz Commentary)

I picked up a co-worker’s September issue of Fast Company magazine because it has comedian Lewis Black, “the Angry Everyman,” on the cover. But the article that captivated my attention is called “How Many Light Bulbs Does It Take to Change the World?”

The answer — according to writer Charles Fishman, who also wrote the excellent book “The Wal-Mart Effect” — is one. It’s the swirl-shaped compact fluorescent light bulb, and Fishman reports that Wal-Mart and General Electric Co. are about to launch a major campaign to encourage Americans to switch to CFLs from cheap but inefficient incandescent bulbs.

While the swirl bulbs cost much more — about 10 times more — than the standard bulbs, they last about 10 times longer and use less than a quarter of the electricity. GE claims that one of its 60-watt equivalent bulbs — $2.53 cents as part of a multipack at Wal-Mart — will save $38 in energy costs over its life.

Wal-Mart, Fishman wrote, calculated that it could save $6 million a year just by switching out the bulbs in the display model ceiling fans in more than 3,000 stores. That’s real money, and it reminded me of the experience of Baldor Electric Co. of Fort Smith. Arkansas Business reported in 2003 that Baldor invested $1.5 million in energy-efficient lighting and motors and reduced its annual electric costs by $1.2 million. That big upfront expense has by now paid for itself many times over. Done smartly, “green” can have a double meaning.

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Since I’m a world-class cheapskate, my husband and I were actually “early adopters” of CFL technology. We made the switch to swirl bulbs about three years ago and have yet to have a single one of them burn out (although one does seem to have pink moods). If you have hard-to-reach fixtures, just the convenience of not having to get up on the ladder for years at a time makes using CFLs worthwhile.

My interest in compact fluorescent bulbs was strictly micro — saving up to 50 cents a month in electricity for each bulb, and there are some 60 light sockets in our medium-sized house. Fishman, however, takes a macro look at the potential impact of having every American household replace just one incandescent bulb with a swirly CFL:

“[I]f Wal-Mart alone sells 100 million swirls in the next year, it does away with the need for 100 million old-fashioned bulbs to be manufactured, packaged, shipped, bought, and discarded next year — and every year until 2012 or beyond.

How much is 100 million bulbs? … That many boxes of bulbs would fill 262 Wal-Mart tractor trailers, a ghost convoy of Wal-Mart trucks, loaded with nothing but lightbulbs, stretching 3.5 miles — a convoy that will never roll. Every year for six years — just from one bulb, this year. Not to mention the line of garbage trucks necessary to cart 100 million burned-out incandescent bulbs to the landfill.”

And don’t forget the yards of linear shelf space in Wal-Mart stores that can be devoted to items more profitable than light bulbs. And the hundreds of millions of dollars formerly given to electric utilities to light all those incandescent bulbs are now available for the kind of consumer goods that Wal-Mart sells.

No wonder Wal-Mart is campaigning for CFLs. But what about GE? Why on earth would the leading light bulb manufacturer encourage consumers to buy one CFL rather than 10 incandescent bulbs? Fishman answers that question, too:

“GE can either help Wal-Mart sell swirls, or some other light bulb company will. In either case, GE’s regular-bulb business shrivels.”

Fishman quotes Lorraine Bolsinger, whose title at GE is vice president of “ecomagination,” the company’s “green” initiative: “The business case is pretty clear. If we don’t grab the market share of CFLs, we lose.”

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Gasoline prices have eased downward a bit, but there’s no reason to think energy will ever be cheap again. Customers of Entergy Arkansas and North Little Rock Electric are staring at very large rate increases in the next few months. Before you start paying those higher bills would be a very good time to make this one smart, simple change in energy consumption habits.

And here’s a tip for my fellow penny pinchers: You can print off a coupon for $1 off the price of CFLs at www.gelighting.com.

(Gwen Moritz is the editor of Arkansas Business. E-mail her at [email protected].)