Saving energy

to heat water, it takes a fixed amount of energy, nothing will change this.

The light can be switched to a florescent, but most large aquariums already use them. Put the light on a timer sos it comes on and off only the amout of time the fish need light.

yes they do ,do damage to the environment, it's being proved by scientist that they are a hazard to the water table if they become broken.also they have been proved to not last as long as they stated them to last as long as they do..in Europe there trying to make manufactures label the truth on them.

for them, leaving the lights on is also an issue of security, so it will be very diffucult to convince everyone to shut it all down. Many communities complain when storefronts have ugly security gates pulled down at night, which for many businesses would be the only other theft deterrent.
However, I've noticed over the last few years that a lot more businesses, companies, and even municipal buildings are becoming a lot more energy concious. This may not only be because they care about the earth, but because a lot of conservation can be cheaper too. But who cares, as long as they're doing it!
One simple way to conserve energy from lights and save money too is switching over to compact flourescent light bulbs. They last years longer and save much more energy than a regular bulb.
The only way we can change their minds is by getting involved! Keep posting your thoughts to get your community thinking, get involved with an environmental group in your town, write a letter to the newspaper, and encourage others to do the same! Read some articles online or in recent news, science and technology magazines to educate yourself about sensible alternatives, then you can educate others. That's how we can all convince others to become more environmentally aware without drastically changing their lifestyle or habits. This way it wont be like a chore to them- it will be simple and rewarding.

an energy saving bulb use less electricity than a conventional bulb example

a energy bulb uses 25 watts of electricity to give the sam amount of light as a 100 watt conventonal bulb energy saving bulbs are either LED( light emmiting diode) or more commonly flourescent which contain gasit takes less electricity to heat the gas giving more light per watt of electricity than a normal light bulb. a watt is a unit of electricity the more watts used the more electricity being used. look on some of your household appliances and you will find out how much each different appliance uses compare your kettle to a television the average kettle uses 2000 watts to 3000 watts or 2 to 3 kilowatts (KW) the average television uses 100 to 150 watts.

hope this is useful....

Nope. They use little extra energy to start. Fluorescent light bulbs heat a small filament to trigger the gas discharge at a lower voltage than would be needed with a cold cathode. The main reason for this is simplicity in the starter circuit.

But this simplicity is not necessary as the CCFLs (cold cathode fluorescent lights) in your notebook computer demonstrate. Those bulbs use a higher start voltage generated by a more complex electronic circuit.

The total start energy is probably worth a few seconds of operational power consumption.

There is one part of the myth that is true: florescent lights with an old (hot cathode) starter have a limited number of start cycles which degrades the lifetime of the lamps if they are being used for much less than an hour at a time. This has nothing to do with the power consumption, but is merely a matter of upgrading the electronic starter to gently start the lamps gas discharge.

One reason a lot of us still use "ordinary" lamps is that we don't feel the Federal government should be telling us how to micromanage our lives! Plus, I don't feel comfortable using all this mercury in my home. Another thing the Feds don't tell us about.

To the person who said that they cannot be connected to a dimmer.
I have dimmers all over my apartment and they work fine. it really just depends on the brand.

and as for the cold light/uncomfortable environment comment.
they come in all kinds of light from your average yellow light the regular bulbs to daylight which do not have that yellowish tint. also I have bought coloured ones like blue, red and green for projects and green houses. The bulbs stay cold to the touch so you cannot burn yourself on them as well so that is a plus.

yes they do have a little lead in them but these bulbs are harder to break. average about 7 year life and the mercury is reused when the bulbs are recycled. the over all life of these bulb out weigh the price of recycling and save you money in the long run. they use less energy so that us humans do not have to produce as much which would reduce all energy plants including coal, gas, wind, hydro, ect. which even the more environmentally friendly options of energy production have environmental foot prints. like production of electronic fields that disrupt migrations patterns or increase local water temperature and kill local fish.

there are currently some places in the world that as phasing out the incandescent bulbs and will soon make them illegal to buy in favour of these new bulbs (British Columbia)

Here are some places to look for light bulbs.
Not sure what type of bulbs you are looking for.