Looking Beyond the Labels

I had an experience over the weekend which reminded me that the most important tool in living a greener lifestyle is good old fashioned common sense!

I recently discovered a Compact Florescent Lightbulb [CFL] from Philips that is only 5w [the equivalent of a 25w incandescent]. These bulbs are great for decorative backlighting such as in wall sconces. Until discovering these bulbs I had been torn because I like to have some backlighting so my house is not completely dark, but at the same time find even the 9w CFLs too bright and therefore an unnecessary waste.

As an added bonus, I just received a coupon from the Ontario Power Authority for CFL bulbs. Coupon in hand I went down to the only store that I had found these lights in [hint, they wear orange aprons], and picked up a few of these super low wattage, energy efficient bulbs.

However, when it came to paying, my precious coupon was turned down because these super low wattage, energy efficient bulbs were not an "Energy Star qualified" product. The higher wattage CFL bulbs were "Energy Star qualified", so if I wanted to get one of those, then I could use the coupon. Interesting idea, and yet would not using a higher wattage bulb be less energy efficient...?

Considering the main goal of using these bulbs was to save energy, not using coupons, I put the coupon back in my pocket and paid full price for the non qualifying, but super low wattage, 5w CFL bulbs. If all that I had looked at was whether the product had a particular symbol or logo on it, then I would have missed out on potential long term energy savings. However, by employing common sense, I was able to make what in reality was a smarter green decision.