The old joke starts out "How many retreat staff members does it take to change a light bulb?" Today I was wondering the converse, "How many light bulbs does it take for a retreat staff members to make a change?"
This year, we have changed over 100 light bulbs. Not because we are going through that many burned out ones at a time, but because we want to change how we use electricity. We have replaced many of our T12 for T8 fluorescent fixtures to save several hundred dollars a year. We also just replaced 25 standard filament bulbs with new LED bulbs. Each of those reduced our usage by 48 watts per bulb. That's a total of 1,200 watts less we are now using just for those 25 bulbs. It is great to get the same lighting quality for less energy used. I'm almost looking forward to the electric bill to see the the resulting changes.
Lastly, we have also replaced our furnace and anticipate using 30% less fuel this winter. Who knew less could be so much more fun! In the near future, we hope to add insulation to make that savings even larger.
Energy saved will be money saved for the ministry at Gove Hill. We are also excited to be making a change in our carbon foot print for the environment. How many light bulbs can you use to make a change too?
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