As most of you know, at Avenue Eyecare, we try to do our part to be environmentally friendly. Our first post on May 12, 2011 highlights our environmentally conscious decisions during our construction/design phases. Many of our patients have noticed that we’ve switched recently over to LED bulbs at our clinic and since we get so many questions about them, I thought I’d enlighten everyone with the bit of information I have. Did you know that there is a Federal mandate to ban incandescent lighting by January 1, 2012? And since January 2011, there have been no incandescent bulbs available over 75W? So what’s left? LED or CFL bulbs…
LED bulbs have a computer chip at the neck of the bulb and use “solid state technology” (ie. no gases) which allows us to get perfect lighting without waiting for the bulb to “warm up”. They also contain no mercury and use 80{4422c3e9d6d956ffe17c4a9703f8867adf328a271a08c00de098d82d34d0cfb5} less power than incandescent bulbs. A bonus benefit I’ve noticed is that our clinic doesn’t get nearly as hot as before, so we’re saving money on both lighting and air-conditioning. BC Hydro is trying to decrease the energy demands of businesses so there are some rebates available for those who are eligible. So the answer to your question, YES, make the switch!
Check out this report by CBC regarding the dangers of CFL bulbs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXtf_MqXCmk