The first step I have decided to take to reduce my energy bills and reduce my household carbon footprint, is to fit energy saving bulbs throughout my house. I already have 3 energy saving bulbs (ESB) in the areas where the lights are most often on, the Kitchen, living room and hallway. That leaves 9 other main light fittings to buy bulbs for.

Energy saving bulbs are widely available, but I got mine from Homebase as they seemed a good price (and there is a store near my house). I bought 10 18w Phillips bulbs for £1.29 each, costing a total of £12.90. A 18w energy saving bulb is equal to a 60w standard bulb.

Financial Saving - Based on the claims made about energy saving bulbs, I should save about £6 or £7 a year for each bulb. Assuming I was replacing all of the bulbs in my house with ESB, this would make a saving of between £72 and £84 per year.

CO2 Saving - Again, based on the claims made about energy saving bulbs, replacing 12 bulbs with ESB should reduce my household carbon footprint by about 26kg of CO2 per bulb, per year. This adds up to a saving of 312kg of CO2.

As a first step, i’m pretty pleased. I should make good saving both in terms of money and CO2 with a very small cost in time and money. Energy saving bulbs are getting cheaper all the time, but still shop around and see if you can find bulk deals (several online stores do this).

Russ - MYG