Save Energy and Money with GE Energy Efficient Light Bulbs {#CBias #SocialFabric #GELighting}

When it comes to going green, there are days that I feel as though we're doing a good job... and then there are days that I feel completely and utterly overwhelmed. Where to start? How to continue? Where to even go to look for more information or natural products?

We do "standard" aspects such as recycling and not leaving the water running, but when it comes to taking things one step further in areas such as saving energy, I found our to-do list seemed rather short. We had new windows put in throughout the house a few years ago, as well a new furnace installed... so, other than turning off the lights or television when they aren't necessary, where does that leave us?

Thanks to GE, I found that the answer to going green and saving money lay right in their light bulbs.

I'll admit that for a long time I've thought that a light bulb is... a light bulb. Some are brighter, some are dimmer, and I've always wondered what would happen if I put a 75W into a lamp that states that it can take a bulb with a max 60W. Would it self-combust right then and there?

But now GE has come out with energy efficient light bulbs and, as soon as I heard more about them, it was clear that they are an easy and smart change to make. GE Energy Efficient Soft White Light Bulbs offer the closest alternative to traditional incandescent bulbs (e.g. the size, shape and performance are the same) but with a 28% energy savings!

At the same time, GE Energy Smart Bright from the Start CFL bulbs illuminate quickly, last eight times longer and use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs. Just by switching, you'll save an average of $39 in energy costs over the life of the bulb.

After hearing stats like those, I pulled a few bulbs out from our lights and found that they somehow seemed...

Thanks for nothing, regular and Reveal bulbs. Why haven't you been saving me money all this time?

...dim.

Along with their lack of efficiency or money-saving capabilities, it seems like we have had to constantly change light bulbs in our house since we moved in. In fact, my husband and I have had a long-standing joke that as soon as we stop being lazy and go get a new bulb to replace one that is burnt out in our kitchen, living room or dining room, then the next one goes out!

It was time to put a stop to the light bulb madness by checking out the lighting options at Walmart (see our full shopping trip in photos here). Knowing that GE has energy efficiency covered, I was looking forward to checking out the selection and bringing home the bulbs that would start putting money back in our pocket.

While I'm always amazed at the size of Walmart Supercenters, it didn't take more than a minute or two of looking around in the Home section before spotting the inflatable light bulb hanging from the ceiling to know that we had found our aisle.

Glad to see that there was such a large selection available, I quickly began to feel a little overwhelmed at just how many different choices there were.

So much #GELighting!

Fortunately, my husband and I managed to look through the many bulbs offered (and he could define things like CFL and LED for me) and we were happy to find that the GE Energy Smart Bright from the Start CFL and Soft White Light Bulbs were exactly what we needed.

Even better, the selection available was large enough for us to fill our cart. Now all we had to do was get them home to start swapping out all of our incandescent light bulbs!

GE is so sure that we're all going to save money by switching to their energy efficient light bulbs that they've not only put together this cute little video to get the idea across...


...but they also have created a GE Energy Smart CFL Savings Calculator so that you can truly get an idea of just how much money you can save annually as well as over the lifetime of your bulbs.

You've got to head over and find out your estimated energy savings, it just might surprise you! It told me that we can save nearly $300 per year and almost $1,600 over the life of our bulbs... and that's no small change!

Ready to make the choice that is good for the earth as well as your pocketbook? Find out more about GE and all of their great light bulbs at GELighting.com, and don't forget to connect with them on Twitter and Facebook as well.

I'll be checking back in next month to compare our energy bill from last year with this year to see just how much of a difference GE has made in our home. As they say, "A small change can create big change," and I'm looking forward to seeing just how much of that big change is going to end up staying in my bank account!

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and GE but all thoughts and opinions are honest and my own. #CBias #SocialFabric