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Looking down at the Promenade on the Carnival Liberty

Stingray City on Grand Cayman Island. We swam with them at sea before we did some snorkeling.

A simulated (real?) pirate ship at dock in Grand Cayman Islands. They gave pirate demonstrations, Arrr!!!

A parrot hanging out at the dolphin lagoon.

In Freeport, Bahamas, we had a chance to play with and get kisses from dolphins. They also did some cool flying tricks for us!

Today was simply beautiful out. I took a drive to Kirkland — this shot is on the shores of Kirkland, looking over Lake Washington to Seattle, and the Olympic Mountains are in the background.

Jeff and I visited the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park. They have a Calder on display, who has a famous sculpture in downtown Grand Rapids.

Got the car washed and took some pics with my new lens

So after being inspired to reduce my energy usage, I took a look at buying Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs) for my apartment.

CFLs are recently becoming popular in home lighting, and can provide substantial energy savings over their lifetime. They can replace almost all of your existing light bulbs in your house.

CFLs:

• Use 2/3 the energy of normal bulbs
• Last up to 10 times longer
• Generate up to 70% less heat

They do come at a higher initial cost. However, as I was shopping for CFLs at Home Depot, I noticed coupons from Puget Sound Energy for $2 off (small) and $3 off (large) per bulb, limit of 8 of each size. That saved me (8 * $2 + 8 * $3) = $40 in bulbs, so I retrofitted my entire apartment, 16 bulbs for $32!

After replacing all of the bulbs in my apartment, I am quite happy. Their lighting output is the same (to the naked eye) as the old bulbs. The energy savings are substantial. Before and after wattages (verified with the Kill-A-Watt):

• 1x floor lamp – 140W before, 21W with CFLs
• 1x night stand lamp – 90W before, 14W with CFLs (60W equivalent)
• 3x bathroom mirror lights – 60W before, 14W with CFLs
• 4x dome lights – 60W before, 14W with CFLs
• 6x track lights – 60W before, 14W with CFLs
• Total: 1010W before, 217W with CFLs

PSE charges me about $0.06841 per kWh. (not that I do), but if I ran all of these lights 24/7, I would be spending (1010W * 24 h * 30 days * 0.06841) = $49.73 / mo. With CFLs, this is reduced to (216 W * 24 h * 30 days * 0.06841) = $10.63 / mo. So while that isn’t realistic, as I don’t have all my lights on all of the time, I’m probably saving a few dollars a month.

Cool stuff!