While reading an article about a community that was using kerosene lights for its illumination a few decades ago, it occurred to me how little we need to think about our lights today.

Kerosene lights were a lot of work. You needed to fill them periodically, careful not to let the smelly fuel spill. You needed regularly to trim the wick to keep it burning efficiently. You needed nightly to adjust the flame to get maximum brightness, but minimum soot. And you needed to clean the globe or it would seem like your vision was going bad.

Some parents argued against a lot of reading by the dim light of a kerosene flame, fearing that vision was indeed damaged.

With electric lights, you screw them in and switch them on. That's it.

All this rumination comes in a month that includes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Change A Light Day. At this time, we are urged to replace less efficient lighting with highly energy-efficient lights that bear the Energy Star label.

"If every U.S. home changed just one light to an Energy Star qualified one, we would save enough energy to light 7 million homes and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 1 million cars," says the EPA on its Web site.

While there are more and more applications for super-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) lights, the efficient lights most convenient in most household applications today are still compact fluorescents. They're roughly the same size as regular incandescents, and while they cost more to buy, they have two distinct advantages: The EPA says they use a third the power to produce the same light, and they last many times longer before they need to be replaced. Also, they don't get nearly as hot, and on a warm summer night the last thing you need is another heat source.

If you're not building new or changing the whole house over, to make the best use of their energy advantages put compact fluorescents in places where the lights burn the longest, like the front door. And to make use of their long life, put them in places that are the most difficult or dangerous to reach, like fixtures that require a ladder for access.

What can you save? If you have five 25-watt bulbs (replacing five 75-watt incandescents) that are on three or four hours a night, it could save up to $100 a year, depending on your island's electricity rates. And that should more than pay for the bulbs.

For more details, look up lighting products at www.energystar.gov. They talk about kerosene at that site, too, but only as a heating fuel.

If you have a question or concern about the Hawaiian environment, drop a note to Jan TenBruggencate at P.O. Box 524, Lihu'e, HI 96766 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com. Or call him at (808) 245-3074.