Change your light bulbs. Environmentalists and other green types have been begging us to do it for years now. Regular incandescent light bulbs waste 95% of electricity that we throw at them, among other reasons to switch.

Nonetheless, "Incandescents filled 85% of sockets in 2002 compared to less than 2% for Compact Fluorescents" (source).

So the time to switch is right now. What's that you say? You have to watch some show on TV tonight instead? Lean in a bit closer here...THIS IS A PLANETARY EMERGENCY GET YOUR ASS TO HOME DEPOT.

Now that we've had that little chat, here are more reasons to switch:

• payback: these little guys pay better than any mutual fund, very often saving their price in electricty in a couple of years
• convenience: I filled my house with them in 2000, and I have never changed a light bulb - they last 10 times longer than the obsolete kind
• CO2: a 13 Watt twisty will save over 500 Kg of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. That's half a tonne less of poisonous coal that will be burned at Wabamun Lake

Buying Tips

• 10,000 hours - make sure the ones you buy are rated for at least 10,000 hours - they also sell 6,000 and 8,000 hour-rated bulbs for the same price.
• test their light color - I've never noticed a real difference, but some people do.
• everything else you may want to know is outlined here (Home Depot)

Lighting your home with anything but these twisty little guys - and yes, that means halogens as well - is highly inefficient. It's time to switch.