After looking at my family’s carbon footprint, I’ve realized there are a few things we could change to reduce our carbon footprint. I had counted all the lightbulbs in our house and found that almost none of them were LEDs. LED lightbulbs, or Light Emitting Diodes, are extremely energy- efficient. They are a type of Solid State Lighting which have organic light emitting diodes. One benefit of purchasing these are that they last about ten times longer than compact fluorescents. Another is that they produce little to no heat unlike most other bulbs. Unfortunately, these bulbs are quite pricey. “However, researchers at Purdue University have developed a process for using inexpensive silicon wafers to replace the expensive sapphire-based technology. This promises to bring LEDs into competitive pricing with CFLs and incandescents” (Eartheasy). Hopefully, sometime soon, the prices will drop a good amount so that more people can afford these bulbs and conserve some energy.
http://eartheasy.com/live_energyeff_lighting.htm