The money you spend on light bulbs is only 5 to 10 percent of the total cost of lighting; the other 90 to 95 percent is the cost of electricity.
- Try motion sensors that turn lights off automatically when everyone leaves a room. Timers that automatically turn lights on and off can reduce your energy use increase safety by making a house appear occupied even when people are away.
- Keep fixtures and bulbs clean. Dirt can absorb as much as 50 percent of a bulb’s light output.
- 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 percent less energy.
- Translucent lampshades provide more light than solid colored shades. Use dimmers or three-way incandescent bulbs to control the amount of light you need in a room. Dimming the lights to half the illumination cuts energy consumption almost in half.
- Turn off lights when nobody is home. Use a timer to ensure you don’t forget.
- Use daylight whenever possible, rather than turning on redundant overhead lighting.
LED vs. Conventional Bulbs
You certainly hear and read a lot about the advantages and benefits of the energy efficiency of LED light-emitting diodes vs. traditional lighting. when you compare them to other energy-saving illumination methods that are available on the market today, you will
LED lighting is by far the most power-saving and smart solution
- Long Life:Long life time stands out as the number one benefit of LED lights. LED bulbs and diodes have an outstanding operational life time expectation of up to 100.000 hours. This is 11 years of continuous operation, or 22 years of 50% operation. If you leave on the LED fixture for 8hr per day it would take around 20 years before you’d have to replace the LED bulb.
- Energy Efficiency: Todays most efficient way of illumination and lighting, with an estimated energy efficiency of 80%-90% when compared to traditional lighting and conventional light bulbs. This means that about 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light, while a ca. 20% is lost and converted into other forms of energy such as heat.
- Ecologically Friendly: LED lights are free of toxic chemicals. Most conventional fluorescent lighting bulbs contain a multitude of materials like e.g. mercury that are dangerous for the environment.
- Durable Quality: LEDs are extremely durable and built with sturdy components that are highly rugged and can withstand even the roughest conditions.
- Zero UV Emissions: LED illumination produces little infrared light and close to no UV emissions.
- Design Flexibility: LEDs can be combined in any shape to produce highly efficient illumination. Individual LEDs can be dimmed, resulting in a dynamic control of light, color and distribution.
- Operational in Extremely Cold or Hot Temperatures: LEDs are ideal for operation under cold and low outdoor temperature settings.
- Light Dispersement: LED is designed to focus its light and can be directed to a specific location without the use of an external reflector, achieving a higher application efficiency than conventional lighting.
Battle of the Bulbs
| CFLs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Lumens | Watts | Watts | Watts |
| 450 | 4–5 | 8–12 | 40 |
| 750–900 | 6–8 | 13–18 | 60 |
| 1100–1300 | 9–13 | 18–22 | 75–100 |
| 1600–1800 | 16–20 | 23–30 | 100 |
| 2600–2800 | 25–28 | 30–55 | 150 |
| CFLs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Projected lifespan | 50,000 hours | 10,000 hours | 1,200 hours |
| kWh of electricity used over 50k hours of use | 500 | 700 | 3000 |
| Bulbs needed for 50k hours of use | 1 | 5 | 42 |
Fire Danger in Your Home?
If you own a halogen torchiere floor lamp, you may be getting more than you bargained for. More than 50 million halogen torchieres have been sold in the U.S. since the late 1980s. Their standard light source is a high-wattage halogen lamp, which produces a clean white light that many people find attractive. These lamps are popular, inexpensive, and dimmable — but they are also highly inefficient and extremely dangerous.
Halogen torchieres are a serious fire hazard, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They estimate that the lamps have been linked to more than 350 fires, 30 deaths, and 114 injuries in the U.S. in recent years.
The halogen torchiere heats up to 1100°F, which can ignite nearby flammable objects within minutes. Demonstrations have shown that when a frying pan was placed on the torchiere fixture, it cooked an egg within three to five minutes.
Another serious problem with halogen torchiere lamps is their extreme inefficiency. Amazingly, a halogen torchiere lamp costs more money in one year to operate than its original purchase price. That’s because these lamps consume as much energy as a typical refrigerator and 95 percent of this energy is wasted electricity.
Halogen torchiere lamps yield one watt of visible light and nine watts of heat for every ten watts of power consumed. Put another way, you get one kilowatt hour worth of light for every ten kilowatt hours that show up on your PUD bill. Dimming the torchiere may reduce light output, but it also reduces the lamp’s efficiency.
The safe alternative to a halogen torchiere is a cool-burning, energy-efficient compact fluorescent torchiere. While energy-efficient lights may cost a bit more upfront, they pay for themselves quickly because they use less energy. A compact fluorescent torchiere uses up to 85 percent less energy than the comparable halogen fixture and is six to eight times cooler, a difference of up to 900° F.