How much power would be saved by replacing all incandescent bulbs in the world with compact fluorescents?

Question

If the all incandescent globes in the world were changed to compact fluorescent lights what reduction in power use could be made?

Answer 1

Id say a whole Damn Bunch!!! ( just kidding).

Good article. Here is one paragraph. Go to the web site to read more.

Switching light bulbs is an easy way of realizing large immediate gains in energy efficiency. A study for the U.S. government calculated that the gasoline equivalent of the energy saved over the lifetime of one 24 watt compact fluorescent bulb is sufficient to drive a Prius from New York to San Francisco. While a worldwide phase out of the inefficient incandescents would reduce world electricity use by more than 3 percent, shifting to more-efficient street lighting and replacing older fluorescent tubes with newer, more-efficient ones might double this reduction in power use.

Answer 2

There would be a HUGE difference in the amount of coal we use. Just ONE fluorescent bulb is "equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the road." (see source below). It also saves massive amounts of coal. There was an article in National Geographic about how much this bulb would save and I don't remember the exact amount but it was something big. So IF we could get everyone to do this, it would be amazingly better.

Answer 3

its hard to say... but a rough est. the world today uses 13 trillion watts or 13 terawatts. they say that 20% of the average home electricity bill is from lighting. so that would be 2.6 terawatts to use lighting. and since cfl bulbs use 1/4 the power. thats a savings of 1.95 terawatts. now thats a very very rough est. b/c i have excluded the people who are already using cfl bulbs, and office buildings. there are a lot of factors to put in there. but its a start.

now if what the guy said above me is true, 3% savings. then there would be a savings of 390 gigawatts or 390 billion watts.

Answer 4

Generally it is said ,Idonot know whether scientifically proved,flourescent lamps produce ultra violet (U.V-high frequency)radiation and Incandescent (tungston) bulbs produce only Infra Red.(low frequency-Heat) which is Genetically NOT so dangerous!!

Answer 5

Bbop and Michael N give good answers. If you think of it in term of power plants, that is probably 20 coal fired plants worth of power worldwide.

Answer 6

I'M sure some, but not enough to make a real dent in anything. its up to the large corporations to change there polluting habits to see any real change.

Answer 7

not much at all, mythbusthers tried to prove that it would be a lot, but it doesn't.