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Introduction
Benefits
Equipment & Services
Buying Efficient Lighting
Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFLs) Disposal
1. Introduction
Energy efficient lighting technology has come a long way recently, offering more choices in color, shape, size, and fixtures. It’s no longer necessary to choose between having lighting that is beautiful or efficient; there are several lighting options that provide both.
Still, most home lighting uses incandescent bulbs, which provide more heat than light and waste energy. Lighting accounts for 5-10% of the total energy use in an average home.
2. Benefits
Energy Savings
There are a few types of efficient lighting, described below. The most commonly used are compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which save 75% on lighting costs (taking into account both initial replacement and electricity costs). And, CFLs last up to 10 times longer than incandescents. One CFL can save $50 - 75 over its life.
If every Colorado household replaced one incandescent bulb with a CFL, the savings would total more than $11 million in annual energy costs.
Comfortable Living
Only 10% of an incandescent bulb’s energy provides light. The remaining 90% gives off heat, which is problematic during the summer months. Add up the light fixtures in your home, and then think of them as individual heaters adding to your cooling costs.
Conservation
The Department of Energy says that lighting is responsible for 8% of all energy consumption and 22% of electricity nationwide. If every U.S. household changed out their 5 most frequently used light fixtures or the light bulbs in them with ENERGY STAR qualified ones, together we'd keep more than one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of our air. This would be equivalent in air pollution to taking more than 8 million cars off the road for an entire year.
3. Equipment & Services
- Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs). Look for ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs by choosing the right lumens (not watts).
|
Incandescent |
Typical Light Output (Min. Lumens) |
|
40 Watts |
450 lumens |
|
60 |
800 |
|
75 |
1,100 |
|
100 |
1,600 |
|
150 |
2,600 |
- Tube Fluorescent Lighting. Tube fluorescent lighting has improved over the past decade to address problems like flickering or humming. Combined with new electronic ballasts, this type of lighting can provide a warm-light atmosphere. Typical applications include lighting around the perimeter of a room and above the bathroom mirror.
- High-intensity discharge (HID). HID bulbs are very efficient and often used in outdoor lighting.
- Solar-powered outdoor lights use photovoltaic (PV) technology to capture energy from the sun and store it in a battery to provide night lighting.
- Light emitting diodes (LEDs). LED's use a new semiconductor technology referred to as solid state lighting (SSL) systems. This technology is expected to produce new lighting products that are substantially more efficient than current lighting options.
- Halogen lighting has improved, but is not much more efficient than incandescent lighting. It is sometimes preferred over fluorescents when spot light is needed.
- Halogen torchiere lamps, while popular, are very inefficient and do pose a fire hazard due to the extremely hot temperatures produced by the bulbs.
- ENERGY STAR qualified light fixtures come with pin-based compact fluorescent lamps that are tested to last at least 10,000 hours (about 7 years, on average) versus standard screw-in bulbs which last about 1,000 hours or up to 1 year.
- ENERGY STAR qualified ceiling fans use 20-50% less energy to cool your home and generate 70% less heat from the lighting.
4. Buying Efficient Lighting
It can be difficult to find a retail store with the most current lighting products and up-to-date knowledge. It may be necessary to seek out a commercial light supplier and visit manufacturer websites. You can become more educated by taking the ENERGY STAR lighting quiz.
Visit ENERGY STAR’s online lighting buying guide.
5. Compact Fuorescent Lamp (CFLs) Disposal
Due to the mercury content in CFL's, it is environmentally friendly to dispose of them carefully. Download our Smart Energy Living Fact Sheet (PDF) on CFL disposal. (688KB)
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