Lighten Your Lighting Costs

New home lighting technology can cut energy bills.

U.S. Department of Energy

An average household dedicates about 11 percent of its energy bill to lighting. Using new lighting technologies can reduce lighting energy use in your home by 50 to 70 percent.

An average household dedicates about 11 percent of its energy bill to lighting. Using new lighting technologies can reduce lighting energy use in your home by 50 to 70 percent.

Advances in lighting controls offer further energy savings by reducing the amount of time lights are on but not being used.

Indoor Lighting Options

Use tube fluorescent and energy efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) in fixtures throughout your home to provide high-quality and high-efficiency lighting. Fluorescent lamps are much more efficient than incandescent (traditional) bulbs and last about 4 to 10 times longer.

Today's CFLs offer brightness and color rendition that is comparable to incandescent lights. Although fluorescent and compact fluorescent lamps cost a bit more than incandescent bulbs, they pay for themselves by saving energy over their lifetime. CFL fixtures are now available that feature dimmers and operate much like incandescent devices.

Indoor Lighting Tips

Here are suggestions to save money on indoor lighting:

• Look for the “Energy Star” label when purchasing indoor lights.
  
• Turn off lights in a room you are not using, or consider installing timers, photocells, or occupancy sensors to reduce the amount of time that your lights are on.
• Use task lighting. Instead of brightly lighting an entire room, focus the light where you need it. For example, use fluorescent under-cabinet lighting for kitchen sinks and countertops.
• Consider three-way lamps; they make it easier to keep lighting levels low when a brighter light is not necessary.
• Use 4-foot fluorescent fixtures with reflective backing and electronic ballasts for your workroom, garage, and laundry areas.
• Consider 4-watt mini-fluorescent or electro-luminescent night-lights. Both lights are much more efficient than their incandescent counterparts. The luminescent lights are cool to the touch.
• Use CFLs in your portable table and floor lamps.
• Look for recessed down lights (also called recessed cans) that are rated for contact with insulation and designed specifically for pin-based CFLs.

Outdoor Lighting Tips

Here are suggestions to reduce energy costs in outdoor home lighting:

• Use outdoor lights with a photocell unit or a motion sensor so they will turn on only at night or when someone is present.
• Turn off decorative outdoor natural gas lamps. For example, the equivalent of eight lamps burning year-round uses as much natural gas as it takes to heat an average-size home during an entire winter.
• Use CFLs because of their long life. If you live in a cold climate, be sure to buy a lamp with a cold-weather ballast since standard CFLs may not work well below 40 degrees.
• Consider high-intensity discharge or low-pressure sodium lights.

This article, and hundreds more, can be found on the NEA Member Benefits Web Site in the “Member Library” section at: www.neamb.com/consumer_articles.jsp