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Lighting Efficiency
From TipThePlanet
- Artificial lighting consumes almost 15 percent of household's electricity use. Lighting fixtures may be the easiest items to modify to save energy. According to ENERGY STAR, replacing you home's five most-frequently-used light fixtures, or the bulbs in them, with high efficiency lights can save you as much as $70 a year in energy costs. ENERGY STAR-qualified lighting also uses 75 percent less energy, generates 70 percent less heat, and lasts up to 10 times longer than standard lighting.
- Turn off overhead lights and lamps when you leave a room.
- Buy CFLs to replace incandescent light bulbs in frequently-used fixtures around your home. CFLs use up to 75 percent less energy. See our Lighting Calculator to compare [[1]].
- Consider "daylighting" - open blinds and curtains on energy-efficient, north and south-facing windows toa llow sunlight rather than artificial lighting to produce light in a room.
- Use a timer to turn lights on and off, especially outside security lights, at pre-deteremined times.
- Consider an ENERGY STAR-quilified outdoor fixture, with a CFL if possible, for outside security lights and porch lamps that often remain on for long, consecutive hours. Try motion-detector lighting for outside lights, if possible.
- Perform a home energy audit of your lights.
