Electricity is necessary. But there's no point in having to pay too much, or use electricity you don't need. We can all do our part to reduce demand, and in the process, save money that we were spending on our electricity bills for other things.
LED bulbs:
Yes, this used to be a major investment ($13-14 per bulb). In fact, I had a financial plan for replacing all my bulbs with LEDs. That is, until I went to the dollar store and discovered they had LED bulbs there for, yes, $1.
For some specialty bulbs (3-way, fluorescent tube replacements) the cost will be more. But for your everyday, ordinary light bulbs, you're talking about reducing that part of your electric bill that goes for lighting by 90%. I used to have timers on my Christmas lights and it was a significant part of my December bill. Now, all my Christmas lights combined cost less than the nightlight I used to have.
Light color matters, too. I know many people complain about the bluish tint of LEDs. First off, they also come in yellowish tints, too (look for a low Kelvin temperature, around 2700). However, you may want to consider a cool white or daylight setting. Why? Because you see better with less light.
And when you're replacing, don't forget about your refrigerator bulbs. I had 2 40-watt bulbs in my fridge, which meant that every time I opened the door, I was not only heating up the interior of the fridge with room air, but I was also putting out 72 watts worth of heat to heat up the food I was trying to keep cold. Now I have 2 4-watt bulbs which give me more light (enough to see how badly I needed to clean the refrigerator).
In fact, I'm now down to just seven bulbs needing to be replaced. Four are specialty bulbs, and the others I just haven't quite gotten to yet and I don't use often.
