Conserving the amount of energy we use is often suggested as an important way people can combat things like acid rain and global warming. It is also an excellent way to combat the high cost of living. The use of Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs is often touted as one way to cut energy use. These bulbs are not the strip lights you have seen in school building and stores. CFL bulbs are the size of a normal light bulb but look like a twisted white rod instead of a glass globe. To find out the impact the choice of bulb has on the amount of electricity we use save this worksheet to your computer as a Word Document. The complete the following activity noting that you will post some of the data to the Question and Answer forum on the class web site by Friday of this week.: Visit Wal-Mart, Lowes, or ACE and find both of the following: 1. A box of normal (incandescent) soft white light bulbs. These must be 60W, medium base, soft white bulbs. They may be general purpose or 2X (long life) bulbs. Make sure that they are general lighting bulbs and not 3 way, fan, or any other color bulbs. 2. A box of compact fluorescent bulbs that are the equivalent of 60W. Make sure that they are general lighting bulbs and not 3 way, fan, or dimmable bulbs. The CFL bulbs will look like this: The nomal light bulbs look like this: You must find a CFL that produces the equivalent light of a 60 watt normal incandescent bulb. Note that the life of some bulbs is given as "year life". For example 1.4 year life. Each "year life" is equivalent to 3 hours per day for 365 days. 3x 365 = 1095 hours. So, to convert "year life" into hours you will need to do the following: year life x 1095 = life of the bulb in hours.