Lighting Tips

Making improvements to your lighting is one of the fastest ways to cut your energy bills. Using new lighting technologies can reduce lighting energy use in your home by 50% to 75%. Advances in lighting controls and management systems offer further energy savings by reducing the amount of time lights are on but not being used.

Turn off lights: This energy saving measure has been around since Edison first turned a light on, and it's as effective as ever. Keep in mind that a typical light bulb kept on for 24 hours per day will be reflected in your energy bill.

Keep fixtures and bulbs clean: Dirt,on the light fixture,can absorb as much as 50% of the light.

More bulbs are not better: Use one bulb instead of multiple bulbs whenever possible. A single 100-watt incandescent bulb produces the same amount of light as two 60-watt bulbs, and it uses 20% less energy.

Longer life bulbs can help: Do you have light bulbs that are difficult to get to and a real pain to change? Long-life incandescent bulbs last two to three times longer than a standard bulb and compact fluorescent lamps last up to ten times longer.

Keep lights off during the day: Use daylight whenever possible, rather than turning on redundant overhead lighting.

Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs): Use linear fluorescent tubes and energy efficient CFLs in fixtures throughout your home to provide high-quality and high-efficiency lighting. Fluorescent lamps are much more efficient than incandescent (standard) bulbs and last about 6 to 12 times longer.

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs— A Clear Light: Today’s CFLs offer brightness and color rendition that is comparable to incandescent bulbs. Although linear fluorescent and CFLs cost a bit more than incandescent bulbs initially, over their lifetime they are cheaper because of how little electricity they use. CFL lighting fixtures are now available that are compatible with dimmers and operate like incandescent fixtures.

• Be sure to buy qualified CFLs.
• They will save you in electricity costs.
• Producing about 75% less heat, they are safer to operate and can cut home cooling costs.
• They are available in sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture.
• They provide the greatest savings in fixtures that are on for a long time each day.
• The best fixtures to use qualified CFLs in are usually found in your family and living rooms, kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, and outdoors.

LED - A New Type of Light: Light emitting diodes, or LEDs, offer better light quality than incandescent bulbs, last 25 times as long, and use even less energy than CFLs. Look for the qualified LED products at home centers and lighting showrooms.

• The key strength of LED lighting is reduced power consumption. When designed properly, an LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency.
• LEDs are ideal for hard-to-reach/maintain fixtures; LEDs are projected to produce a long service life that can reach 25 times as long as standard incandescent bulbs.
• There is already wide spread use of LED traffic signs and LED headlights where a premium is placed on a reliable light source that is cheaper and less labor intensive to maintain.