GREENING SYNAGOGUES RESOURCES

Lightbulbs

***Start here!*** If there’s one simple act that every facility can and should take, it’s switching over its light sources. Incandescent bulbs, which have hardly changed in design since Thomas Edison invented them well over a century ago, dissipate the vast majority of the electricity flowing into them as heat rather than light. Halogen lights are only marginally more efficient, but burn hotter (and more dangerously) still. But compact fluorescent bulbs shine on the horizon like so many points in a Seurat sustainability scene. Call them bal tashchit bulbs, for how they help us follow the Jewish law prohibiting unnecessary waste!

In one fell swoop, compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL’s for short) cut electric use by fully 75% -- that’s halfway toward the Maccabean efficiency ideal, where one unit of oil went eight times longer than expected in the classic Hanukkah story. And if you’ve previously had or heard of bad experiences with CFL’s, know that they’ve come a long way in recent years. Some things to look for are T-8 ballasts (over the older and generally less favorable T-12’s), full-spectrum light, and true compactness to fit into most fixtures. CFL’s cost a fair bit more than incandescent bulbs -- often about $5 each -- but pay for themselves over and over again in the form of lower electric bills, greater longevity (up to 10 times longer), less maintenance time and costs to switch the bulbs, and even lower air conditioning bills, since the A/C has to run that much harder to compensate for the incandescent bulbs’ heat.

Source: US Department of Energy

New developments are taking place all the time. LED (light emitting diode) bulbs are already on the market, and constantly improving in the quality of their light; they make compact fluorescents look like electricity guzzlers by contrast. But here’s the one thing that every synagogue and communal structure simply must do: install LED exit signs. These standard-issue red or green light “exit” boxes, by law, have to be on 24/7. But the inefficient incandescents in most of them will burn out every few months, creating a safety issue not to mention a constant janitorial concern -- and a constant stream of fossil fuel emissions and high utility bills. The LED signs only use about ten percent as much energy, saving dozens of dollars annually. They pay for themselves within about a year, and continue to generate environmental and financial savings for a decade or more. Click here for more information.