It was hard finding all of the bulbs we needed but Vanessa and Zack helped me and we eventually figured it out. During the shopping trip, we kept track of the cost with a calculator app on our iPad (more math skills). We had to do some problem solving when they didn’t have the bulbs we wanted for our chandelier. When the price tags on the shelves didn’t match, we had to do some more math and some more problem solving.
Back home, we gathered together the GE Energy Star light bulbs we had purchased and got to work.
We went room by room replacing as many of the bulbs as we could.
Then we started on the tri-fold board. We drew a large light bulb in the center and used my X-ACTO knife to cut away the outside part. Then, we pulled out some Mod Podge Glow-In-The-Dark and some metallic & glitter paints. Vanessa applied the Mod Podge to the bright part of the light bulb and Zack painted the silver part of the light bulb.
Once the paint had dried we filled out the board using paint markers.
Next, we went to GE’s website and used their GE Energy Smart CFL Saving Calculator. We replaced 25 bulbs and I added the 4 energy efficient living room bulbs from the previous post. I got on my electric company’s website and figured out that we pay an average of $0.13 kilowatt/hr, which is more than the average of $0.10. This diagram shows our savings!
On the left side of the board, we put the tally of all the light bulbs in our house. In the middle we put the money we will save. On the right we each thought of a thing or two that we could buy with the money we will save. My kid’s favorite part was the glow-in-the-dark bulb. I tried to take a picture of the glowing bulb to add to the post but even with a slow shutter speed, it didn’t work. It sure does look neat though! We were all amazed with how much money this will save us. Hopefully we can continue replacing bulbs until all 67 of them are energy efficient.
How do you plan to help you kids avoid the summer slide?
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John says
Awesome post. I’m having dinner with the GE folks and the Elmer’s folks called and told us about it!
Mama Luvs Books says
Great way to assess and see how you’re doing! And a fantastic lesson for the kids!!!
Kathy says
Great Project – just look at those savings add up!
Andrea Kruse says
That is a great savings! And such a fun way to teach the kids about conservation, savings and being green.
Terri says
What a wonderful way to motivate your family to green up! Loved this!
Amy F says
That’s some impressive savings there! I have so many bulbs that I still need to transition that I’m scared to count them! (And this is AFTER swapping out some!)
Laura says
I love my CFL bulbs and almost have everything replaced to them. Curious, what did you do with the incandescent bulbs that were still good?
Anne @ Domesblissity says
Oh, those poor kids of yours Tonia! (LOL Just kidding. I think my kids would enjoy doing something like that too on their vacation.) I’m surprised how many bulbs you’ve got in your house. Besides my living area, which has 3, I’ve only got 1 bulb in each other room in the house. What’s that? A puppy I see on the ‘wish list’? LOLAnne xx