New Green Irene LED Torpedo Bulb

We’re happy to announce the addition of a state-of-the-art LED light bulb! This new item is in-stock and ready to ship.

LED Torpedo Bulb – 3w | E12 | 3500k | Dimmable This 3 watt LED Torpedo bulb is perfect for chandeliers, wall sconces and ceiling fans! It not only uses 80% less power than an incandescent, it lasts 25 times longer (25,000 hours), reaches full brightness instantly and dims the full 0% to 100% range!

Rosamaria Caballero
The Original Green Irene Eco-Consultant

LEDs Coming To Your Home… Just Not in 2009

Dale (our Director of Operations) and I walked around the floor of Lightfair International (the lighting industry’s annual trade show at the Javits Center in New York) and you would think that lamps based on light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, had already filled our homes and workplaces. LED bulbs and fixtures dominated nearly every booth on the show floor.

In reality, there are few good options for homeowners YET. Most of the options are a 40 Watt equiv, which is too dark for many applications. Many are not out and those will retail at $50+ per bulb! Green Irene is keeping a close eye on what is available and will be selling thru our Eco-Consultants as soon as we are happy with a product. Some LEDs are dimmable and some are not.

The New York Times had a good summary of LEDs at the show:

“In the U.S., 78 percent of the public is completely unaware that traditional light bulbs will be phased out in 2012,” said Charles F. Jerabek, president and chief executive of Osram Sylvania, a unit of Siemens. By law, bulbs must be 30 percent more efficient than current incandescent versions beginning that year. While the current crop of compact fluorescents could do the job, the industry is rallying around LED lamps for many applications. They say LEDs last longer than current bulbs and their energy consumption could eventually be less than fluorescent lights’. They can also be made in many shapes and sizes, which was evident at the trade show. Unlike compact fluorescents bulbs, they contain no mercury and they work well in cold weather. They provide a more pleasing light than fluorescents.

Manufacturers displayed LEDs incorporated into large warehouse, garage and street-lighting fixtures, flexible light ribbons, and replacements for the halogen reflector lamps used in kitchens and offices. Strips of flexible LEDs from Osram Sylvania put light in places where it could not otherwise fit. Later this year, the company will market tiny LED chandelier lights that use 6 watts instead of the 15 watts typical of an incandescent version. It says they will last 25,000 hours instead of 1,500 for an incandescent bulb. Also this fall, Osram, Lighting Science and Philips will introduce 25,000-hour LED lamps that look like traditional bulbs but use just 8 watts of electricity to produce the same amount of light as a 40-watt bulb.

Much of the industry’s effort is aimed at making LED lamps that emit as much light as a 60- or 75-watt incandescent bulb. Cree, a leading maker of LEDs, showed a new version of its LED ceiling fixture that uses 6.5 watts, compared with 11 watts for last year’s model, to create the light of a standard 65-watt lamp.

Even with the wide range of LED products now available, compact fluorescent bulbs will be the technology of choice for most consumers for years to come. That is a result of LEDs’ high prices — more than $20 for a 40-watt-equivalent bulb — and the difficulty in creating bright bulbs. “The C.F.L. market still has a lot of growth,” said Michael B. Petras Jr., president of GE Lighting, a unit of General Electric. Even so, the company is devoting 50 percent of its research and development money to LED-related technologies.

The advent of long-lasting bulbs means light bulb companies have to shift away from making most of their money selling replacement bulbs. Over the last several years, Philips has remade itself by acquiring several companies that sell lamp fixtures for homes and businesses. The company expects its LED sales in the United States to increase to $200 million this year from $120 million in 2008, according to Kaj den Daas, president of Philips’s lighting group for the United States.

The industry expects to sell more bulbs at a higher price. “Instead of $1.25 light bulbs, we’ll be selling $10 to $20 systems,” said Mr. Jerabek of Osram Sylvania. He also said today’s larger homes have many more lights than homes 20 years ago. And, as LED energy efficiency improves, he thinks consumers will upgrade their LED fixtures with lower watt versions. Mr. Jerabek remembers the recent debacle with the introduction of low-price compact fluorescent lamps. Their poor reliability and unnatural light caused widespread dissatisfaction among consumers. “It will be a huge injustice and setback if we allow the same thing to happen to LEDs,” he said.

http://www.GreenIrene.com/

PJ Stafford

Co-Founder

Green Irene LLC

New York, NY

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – Jim Armbrust, Green Irene Eco-Consultant

Jim Armbrust is a Green Irene Eco-Consultant working in the greater Harrisburg area.  Click below to watch his short video introduction!

Seeing The Light To Energy Savings…

Ever wonder how you could live without light? As a resident of this planet called Earth, I feel extremely lucky to have the Sun, it provides me with an enormous amount of light that I need for living. Wait, we all need light for a variety of purposes.

In general we need light to see; but also to grow crops, power our society, and even keep us happy! (Have you ever met anyone deficient of Vitamin D? I was once diagnosed with a red mark on my chart, “Deficient”, and believe me it’s not a happy state of being!) Inside our houses we need light to see and carry out our normal “home” routine. Unlike outside, we need to be careful with light at home because it’s not free! Forgetting to turn off lights and heating can take a toll on the monthly bill. As your local Green Irene, I can help you see the light to energy saving at home! Lighting fixtures at home can draw a large amount of power, perhaps sometimes unnecessarily because there are more energy efficient options. With my Light bulb Savings Calculator, I can determine how much you can save by replacing your old light bulbs with more energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

For example, if you replaced 57 old incandescent light bulbs of different types with the Green Irene Set of CFLs and your electricity rate is roughly $0.24/kwh, you would save more than $6,000.00 over the lifetime of the light bulbs at a cost of $536. In addition, your home would reduce its carbon footprint by 41,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, which is equal to planting 5.1 acres of trees or taking 3.6 cars off the roads.I know what you are thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot!” Yes it is… imagine making that kind of an impact and saving that kind of money by just replacing light bulbs…

I can help you green up your home and save money by showing you where the energy savings actually are in your home. Simply ask your local Green Irene, that’s me…you’ll be taking an important step to greening up, while saving money.

Contact Lane Kennedy, Independent Authorized Green Irene Eco-Consultant

www.GreenIrene.com/1070lane.sanfrancisco@greenirene.com

The Green Irene Home Event Checklist

With green becoming mainstream, you may be wondering what else you can do to further green up your home. You may have found yourself in charge of organizing a family party. Ever thought your event had a significant environmental impact? Have you ever considered not only greening your event, but cutting event costs at the same time as you green up? You don’t have to think too much any longer; we’re here to help.

Green Irene has just released its Green Home Event Checklist. The Checklist allows you to identify aspects of your party that have a significant environmental impact based on categories, such as improving energy efficiency, sending e-mail invitations, and using reusable silverware, and then prepare for them in advance by following the specific recommendations for those items you identify.

Whether your event is at home or in a large venue, you can identify specific targets for which you can prepare in advance to help you achieve real measurable results. The Checklist provides recommendations to help you reduce energy use and carbon emissions, cut on waste and save resources, and educate your guests, all while reducing your overall costs.

Green Irene believes that greening your party is not just responsible, but also saves you money by eliminating unnecessary costs and sets you apart as a green leader. To find more about the Green Home Event Checklist, ask your Local Green Irene Eco-Consultant.

Rosamaria Caballero
Co-Founder and the Original Green Irene