Discount Efficient Bulbs All Gone

It happened almost as fast as a room gets dark once you turn off the light switch.

Last week, a state grant made more than 500,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs available across the state at a bargain-basement price.

They were selling for 99 cents as opposed to the usual $4.50 or so, but the U.P.’s supply of the bulbs is completely gone.

The Marquette Ace Hardware store sold its supply of about 1,000 discount bulbs in just 4 days, but all isn’t lost.

Jennifer Binkley-Power of the energy conservation group Northern Options says some specialty compact bulbs are still available locally for that same 99-cent price.

The compact bulbs last about 10 times as long as regular incandescent bulbs.

Each one also uses a lot less energy, too, and when that’s counted more than half a million times, the savings add up.

Binkley-Power says there’s another chance to get cheap compact bulbs.

The state grant money that powered the program this year has already been made available for next year, too, so the discount will come back.