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

Had you asked me a few months ago what we do to save money on our electricity bill, I would have told you that we turn off the lights when we leave the room and we try not to run the air conditioner before we really need it. And I try to remember to unplug appliances when we're going on vacation. And... that's about it.

But then I was introduced to GE Energy Efficient Light Bulbs and we had the opportunity to complete a #GELighting shop at Walmart to outfit our house in them. There were so many options, but it didn't take too long to decide that the GE Energy Smart Bright from the Start CFL and Soft White Light Bulbs were right for us.

I don't think that I've ever been so excited to replace old light bulbs with new ones!

As well as looking forward to saving energy, I was excited about not having to deal with the hassle of continually changing our burnt out light bulbs. The traditional bulbs that we had been using had the uncanny knack of running out of juice one week after the next, so it seemed like I was spending far too often ignoring the darkness, muttering about the darkness, and finally putting in the effort to change the darkness.

Phooey. Life is too short to spend it changing light bulbs all the time, right?

In the past month, I haven't changed a single bulb, so I was already happy with our switch to the GE Energy Efficient Light Bulbs.

And then? Then I saw this:

Clearly I read the important sections of the newspaper, yes?

Our gas and electric bill arrived three days ago and I was interested in comparing the $132.71 that we owed to how much the bill was that we paid for the same time period in 2011. Did changing to GE Energy Efficient Light Bulb make a difference?

It took a little digging into the archives of our account with the gas and electric company, but I came up with the eyebrow-raising answer after not too much time: $172.93.

Wait. That means...

I had to do about three double-takes at my account and pull out my calculator before I believed it: $40! Our bill is $40 less this year than it was for the same time period last year and that was only after one month of using these bulbs.

I'm sure there are other factors involved (e.g. the weather, a few new appliances, etc) but still.  The GE Energy Smart CFL Savings Calculator had told me that we could save around $300 per year by switching to energy efficient bulbs and I was skeptical at that... but, if this month is any sort of indicator, we'll end up with an extra $480 in our pockets!

I don't know about you, but an extra couple hundred dollars in savings each year sounds awfully nice, doesn't it?

If you're ready to make the choice that is good for the earth as well as your pocketbook, you can 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 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