Store’s switch to fluorescents expected to save $2,500 a year

Store’s switch to fluorescents

expected to save $2,500 a year

HERMITAGE, Pa. — Mark Bolotin has seen the light, and it’s saving him $2,500 a year.

Those are the savings that he calculates from a switch he made last week at Bolotin Furniture, 3056 E. State St. His staff removed the incandescent light bulbs from the store’s 250 table and floor lamps and replaced them with compact fluorescent bulbs, which use less energy.

Bolotin figures he is saving 7.5 kilowatt hours of electricity each hour the store is open, or about 70 cents. He said he will have the cost of the new lights paid off in less than three months.

He said he installed compact fluorescent bulbs in his house years ago but didn’t make the switch at the store because of the upfront cost. He thought perhaps it would be better to replace the bulbs in the store one at a time as they burned out.

Recently, however, he calculated the savings and decided it would be better to replace them all at once.

The store had been using 40-watt bulbs. The replacements are 10-watt bulbs but keep the store just as bright, Bolotin said.

“To me, the store looks better lit than it did before,” he said.

He said the store’s main lights were switched to halogen bulbs years ago in order to save energy.