Energy

Light Bulbs

Reducing Energy Consumption

By reducing your energy consumption, you are reducing the need to produce energy from fossil fuels, our primary source of energy. Every year, more than $13 billion worth of energy leaks from houses through small holes and cracks. That's more than $150 per family.

Every year, we use more energy than we did the year before. In fact, the amount of energy Americans use doubles about every 20 years.

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR® qualified bulb, it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, saving more than $600 million in annual energy costs and preventing greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. A 20-watt compact fluorescent light (CFL) provides as much light as a 100-watt incandescent bulb and lasts eight times longer.

Proper Disposal of CFL Bulbs

Once you have installed CFL bulbs in your house, you need to consider proper disposal when they expire. Properly dispose of CFLs in one of the following ways:

  • Home Chemical Collection Program: The City of Irving offers a periodic opportunities to properly dispose of household bulbs through its Home Chemical Collection Program. To learn more, contact Solid Waste Services at (972) 721-8059
  • Home Depot Locations: Drop expired, whole bulbs at either of the Home Depot stores in Irving. No broken bulbs are accepted. Take the CFLs to the returns desk. Find out more about Home Depot’s Eco-Options.
    • Home Chemical Collection Center
      11234 Plano Road
      Dallas, TX 75243

As a last resort, carefully package your bulb in a sealed plastic storage bag and place in the trash.

Renewable Energy

According to TREIA (Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance) “renewable energy” is defined as “Any energy resource that is naturally regenerated over a short time scale and derived directly from the sun (such as thermal, photochemical, and photoelectric), indirectly from the sun (such as wind, hydropower, and photosynthetic energy stored in biomass), or from other natural movements and mechanisms of the environment (such as geothermal and tidal energy). Learn more about Renewable Energy.