Repair & Improve

Lighting For Style And Efficiency

Illuminate your home with bulbs and fixtures that lighten up energy bills

by Tom Kraeutler, AOL Home Improvement Editor

Tom Kraeutler is the Home Improvement Editor for AOL.  In this column, Tom offers tips on how to build an outdoor patio or deck.

If your approach to saving energy with home lighting is limited to shutting off the swtich as you leave a room, you’re off to a good start, but there’s much more you can do to help the environment and your electric bill. From the comfort of our homes, we’re all contributing to earth-threatening greenhouse gases through the energy we expend, so making green adjustments to your lighting plan is a little step that can have a big impact.

Savvy manufacturers and utilities are responding with options that make it easier than ever to give the green light to energy-saving illumination (literally─even traffic lights and exit signs are being transformed into energy savers these days!). Compact fluorescent bulbs are now available in a wide array of lighting looks and strengths, Energy Star qualified fixtures abound, and traditional solutions like dimmer switches are smarter than ever. If you’ve been seeking enlightenment in this area of home improvement, check out the following illuminating options.

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Change a light bulb and save the world? It’s actually possible with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star qualified CFL, enough energy would be saved to light over three million homes for a year─a savings of more than $600 million in annual energy costs─and we’d prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

On a more individual level, CFLs use 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, last up to 10 times longer, and generate about 75 percent less heat, making them safer to operate and much less of a threat to your home cooling endeavors. Over the lifetime of a CFL bulb, you can save $30 or more in energy costs. Use Energy Star qualified CFLs in fixtures that are typically on for at least 15 minutes at a time or several hours each day─that includes lighting in family and living rooms, bedrooms, dining areas and kitchens, and outdoor illumination.

Hedging because you’re worried about the color and quality of light they provide? Don’t. CFLs are now flicker- and hum-free, and come in a range of light strengths and styles that replicate the incandescents you’re used to while casting a more even glow. Just check their packaging for the Color Reference Index (CRI); the higher that number, the better the spectral mix, with 100 giving the most natural cast of all. Packaging will also display the wattage of the incandescent equivalent so that you can make the perfect power match for your fixture. Bulbs suited to three-way fixtures and specialized dimmers are available as well.

Adding to the value of an Energy Star qualified CFL is the manufacturer’s warranty. When one of these bulbs gives out or is broken, however, it needs to be diposed of properely. Visit www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling or www.earth911.org for recycling information, and visit the Energy Star site for the proper cleanup procedure for a broken bulb.

Residential Light Fixtures
Go beyond the bulb and buy Energy Star qualified fixtures for even more style and efficiency, as they use only about a quarter of the energy their non-qualified counterparts do. Switch the top five fixtures in your home for these savers, and you’ll conserve over $65 in energy costs. Energy Star fixtures not only come in a wide variety of hard-wired and portable designs that distribute light much more efficiently and evenly than their traditional counterparts, but also incorporate efficient features like dimming and automatic daylight shutoff, and carry two-year product warranties, which is double the industry standard.

Ceiling Fans
Energy Star-earning ceiling fan/light combination units not only help you to maintain your cool or warmth, but also offer about 50 percent more efficiency than standard models, adding a savings of about $10 a year to that utility bill tally. If your fan doesn’t include lighting, a qualified light kit may be purchased, but either way, proper installation and use are critical to getting the greatest benefit possible out of the unit. Choose the appropriate UL-rated electrical box (marked “For Use with Ceiling Fans”), mount the ceiling fan so that it’s anchored to a ceiling joist, and balance a fan if it gets wobbly. You can and should use your ceiling fan year-round, running it counter-clockwise during warm months to generate a cooling breeze and clockwise at a slow speed during cold weather to push warm ceiling-level air back down to your level. Just remember to turn off the fan when you’re out of the room to save energy (fans cool people rather than rooms).

Energy Star Advanced Lighting Package
If you’re building from scratch, plan energy savings into your new home by selecting an Energy Star Advanced Lighting package. This smart construction option leads to lower energy bills, cooler operation with lower cost and a longer warranty than standard fixtures, inclusion of qualified ceiling and vent fans, convenience of long-lasting CFL bulbs, and a higher quality of light. Find out just how much savings and added home value you can expect from this option by checking out Energy Star’s Advanced Lighting Package Savings Look-Up Tool.

Dimmers for Incandescent Lighting
Adding dimmers to your current incandescent lighting scheme can also yield significant energy savings. An incandescent bulb dimmed by 10 percent, for example, consumes 10 percent less energy than one on “full” light, and the bulb will last twice as long. Similarly, a bulb dimmed by 25 percent uses 20 percent less energy, and the bulb will last four times longer. Finally, a bulb dimmed by 50 percent uses 40 percent less electricity, and the bulb will last 20 times longer. So dimmers are a great option for saving energy in rooms where you also want to be able to create scenes and moods for different activities. Specialists like Lutron Electronics also offer whole-home systems for existing or new constructions that allow you to wirelessly turn out the lights at the convenient touch of a button.

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