|
By: Diane Sampson
Web site: http://www.lamps-n-lighting.com
This weekend, spend a couple of hours walking
through a local building-supply or hardware store,
and check out all the inexpensive energy-saving
products on the shelves, such as energy efficient
lighting.
You may be surprised to find that the prices
of energy efficient lighting have dropped. Long-lasting
compact fluorescent bulbs come in a variety of
sizes and shapes to fit just about any lighting
fixture, and at prices that make them inexpensive
over their lifetime. You'll be amazed at some
of the energy efficient lighting products on the
store shelves.
energy efficient lighting such as compact fluorescents
are four times more efficient in producing light
for a given amount of energy than are incandescent
bulbs. They also produce less heat than the incandescents
and last up to 10 times longer.
You're thinking, "Sure, these bulbs sound
nice, but energy efficient lighting is such a
small part of my monthly energy costs. Why should
I spend more for these bulbs if I really won't
save that much?"
Yes, lighting accounts for only about 10 percent
of the energy you use in your house. If last month's
utility bill was $100, about $10 of that covered
your home's lighting. But even the smallest areas
of savings still add up. Energy efficient lighting
makes sense.
Consider a study researchers at the Florida Solar
Energy Center conducted several years ago on a
house in Miami that had extensive use of interior
lighting.
With 40 lamps or bulbs in the home - almost double
the number in the typical home - the owners also
had relatively high utility bills.
The energy efficient lighting researchers put
data loggers on all of the home's appliances and
on each lighting fixture to determine energy use.
In this case, the home's occupants liked a lot
of lighting, and research showed that it accounted
for nearly 23 percent of their total annual energy
consumption.
The biggest user of electricity for lighting
was for outdoor light fixtures, followed by the
kitchen, garage and study. Just these areas accounted
for 80 percent of the home's total lighting use.
The researchers substituted 27 different types
of compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy
efficient lighting sources in the home in place
of incandescents, and installed motion sensor
controls for the exterior lighting, at a total
cost of $400.
Monitoring the home for six months after these
changes showed a reduction in household lighting
energy use of 61 percent. The researchers also
estimated the savings more conservatively by multiplying
the per-fixture light usage in hours by the changed
lamp wattage, and calculated a 47 percent savings
this way. They did not include the savings from
the outdoor lighting system improvements.
Even though the purpose of this study was to
achieve the maximum energy efficient lighting
savings possible instead of just seeking the most
economic savings levels, the savings of between
47 percent and 61 percent have an annual value
of $150 to $200 at current utility rates.
The payback for the improvements would be just
two to three years (not counting the extended
lifetime of the more efficient lights for the
projected lives of the incandescent bulbs or the
lower cooling bills from the reduced heat output
of the better lamps).
If just saving money had been the goal of the
study, the researchers concluded that concentrating
on the outdoor and kitchen lighting and other
heavily used fixtures would have given a 30 percent
savings for an investment of only $170.
This is one more example of how little savings
add up. But this is only the financial side of
the improvements.
The compact fluorescent bulbs give off much less
heat than do incandescents, for example, making
them more comfortable to sit near and putting
less heat into the home for the air conditioner
to get rid of - adding even more to the cost savings.
Because the bulbs last eight to 10 times longer
than the conventional ones, there is less aggravation
of changing them when they burn out, especially
in hard-to-reach places.
The little savings can add up quickly to big
dollars in your pocket. Don't overlook even the
smallest opportunities to save money on your home
bills consider energy efficient lighting, it's
comfortable and easy to maintain.
|
