Save Money with a Lighting Makeover with GE Energy Saving Light Bulbs

You might recall me getting started on a household energy savings project late last year; I was replacing my current light bulbs with some of the energy-efficient options available from #GELighting .

You see, we have an older home - it was built in 1959 - and it isn't exactly built for energy savings...ever since we purchased the home in 2009, we have slowly been remodeling, replacing and upgrading certain aspects of the house to not only fit our personal styles, but to make it more energy-efficient.

When Chris and I bought the house in 2009, our electric bill during the summer month was usually $300.

Yes, I said THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS. 

The first thing we did was buy a new outside air conditioning unit, then a new air handler (that's the inside unit that processes the air and sends it out through your vents to cool the house). Next came replacing all of the 20-year-old air conditioning ducts that were either rotted from time or damaged by Hurricane Andrew back in 1992.

We saw about a $20 a month electric bill savings once we did that. Obviously, that just wasn't enough!

Next we decided to take the plunge and we applied for a credit line with our favorite home improvement store, and had new energy-efficient windows and french doors installed. $16,000 later, we were seeing about a $50 electric bill savings. At that point, we began to have issues with our local county permitting office, so we had to stop doing the projects that we wanted to do, and correct the issues the county office had with the additions in our home.

Well, three years later, in June of 2012, I finally got all of that wrapped up and we began to get back to trying to remodel the house and make it more energy-efficient.

I used the GE energy saving calculator to find out that I could easily save about $103 a year just by switching all of my light bulbs to GE energy-efficient CFLs.

We already used some CFLs but my goal was to replace every single light bulb with GE energy saving light bulbs. As you homeowners know, every dollar saved on that electric bill is a dollar that you can spend elsewhere - and we have a lot of "elsewheres" that we want to spend money on in this old house!

GE energy smart CFLs can last up to 11 years - not only is that 11 years of not having to worry about changing light bulbs, but it's an amazing savings opportunity. Each box of GE energy smart bulbs tells you an average that you can save as well as how long the bulbs can last.

Of course, you don't have to use CFL, there are plenty of other GE energy saving light bulbs options, like their new energy efficient soft whites, which are replacing the traditional incandescent bulbs.

Traditional incandescent bulbs are being gradually phased out due to the recently passed incandescent light bulb law, and GE Lighting has even come up with lower priced alternatives, the new GE energy efficient soft white line of bulbs. They're 28% more energy efficient than regular incandescent bulbs but are priced lower than CFLs, so you can still save money!

Now, my results may be skewed because of the changing of the seasons - we went from fall to winter in Miami - but since we didn't really get any cold weather here this winter, I think that's safe to say that changing our light bulbs to GE energy efficient CFL light bulbs definitely had an impact.

Financial Impact of Switching to GE Energy Efficient CFL Light Bulbs

• Electric bill for the month of September: $216.44

September is a very hot month for us, and this is our typical summer electric bill. 

• Electric bill for the month of October: $135.61

This is the month before we began using GE CFL light bulbs, and is a typical fall electric bill. 

• Electric bill for the month of November: $117.37

We replaced most of our light bulbs with GE Energy Saving CFL bulbs early in the month. Our weather hadn't changed very much between October and November. We had a few nights where the temperature went down into the 60's, but it was still warm during the day. I could definitely see that the light bulbs were beginning to making a difference!

• Electric bill for the month of December: $87.11

Now, some of that savings was definitely due to the weather being cooler - it was in the low 80's most of the month of December. But I knew that some of that savings was due to the light bulbs.

I pulled up our bank statements from 2011 to compare, because we had similar weather last winter. I knew that would be a good measure of how much of a difference our new GE energy saving light bulbs made in our electric bill!

What I found actually shocked me.

• Electric bill for the month of November: $144.19
• Electric bill for the month of December $135.07

I think that the $18.24 savings I saw between October and November was largely in part due to the new GE energy efficient light bulbs! I'd like to be conservative, so I'd say that I saved $12 by switching all of our 16 light bulbs in the house, and I can very easily seeing us saving $103 over the course of a year like the GE energy savings calculator estimated!

There are so many GE Lighting options, just take a look at the home improvement and D-I-Y isle at my local Walmart Super Center! My ultimate goal is to replace the outside lights with CFLs too - or even LEDs!

You can find out more about GE energy efficient light bulbs on GELighting.com, and do take a moment to use the GE energy savings calculator - you never know how much you might be able to save!

You can always stay up to date on new and innovative products from GE by following GE Light on Twitter and liking the GE Lighting Facebook page!

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and GE Lighting but all opinions are my own! #CBias #SocialFabric