Green Lighting 101: Your Guide To Energy Efficient Light

Inhabitat:

When it comes to energy efficiency, the easiest way to start cutting down your monthly bill is through your home's lighting. By making simple changes to the types of bulbs you're using, you can be more eco-friendly while saving yourself a pretty penny.

Read the whole story: Inhabitat

Comments

[padrushka]

03:27 AM on 01/24/2011

Glad we will be introducing more mercury and love the uv. Too bad we do not prioritize. howsabout starting out with biggest abusers? Interesting philips ad under the guise of doing the right thing.

[gaydood]

07:17 PM on 01/23/2011

you can buy a 40watt led for $6 that uses 1.5 watts but is only good for accent lighting, i think fiber optic is cool, one buld can be used to light many areas but i have a hard time finding info on it.

[ClimateHawk]

01:20 PM on 01/22/2011

ESL lighting is right around the corner.

The technology is similar to an old fashioned TV tube -- shoot some electrons onto a surface. Hence ESL = Electron Stimulated Luminescence.

It looks like it will provide one more lighting option, mercury-free, and less expensive than LEDs (and also not as long lasting).

For a summary: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/01/light-bulbs-beyond-cfl-led-introducing-esl/comment-page-1/

Notice how innovation happens when we decide to move forward? Thank you, George Bush, for signing the bill that phases out incandescents. (I also liked your tax credit for adoptions.)

[esquilax]

09:28 AM on 01/23/2011

I ordered some and will give them a try. Thanks for the great link.

[Angelus2007]

03:08 PM on 01/21/2011

I have stopped buying CFLs and have gone back to incandescent. I hate the light they give out, and take time to "warm up". When I turn my lights on, they start out dim, and take time to become bright.

[BoFo]

03:40 AM on 01/21/2011

Don't believe the hype -- wait for the LEDs.

[shthar]

09:26 PM on 01/20/2011

But what if I want to get even more mercury into my house?

Is mercury still in thermometers? Or did they need it all for the bulbs?

[gaydood]

07:17 PM on 01/23/2011

lol

[Roseberry]

06:43 PM on 01/20/2011

Stock up on the regular bulbs now, and wait for LEDs to be made available in more practical sizes and uses inside the house, that's my plan. I bought LEDs for outside the house at a high price and installed them last week. I don't plan to have to change them any time soon. Any other kind of 'energy-saving' bulb is unsafe or has ugly light.

[rikadarling]

05:02 PM on 01/20/2011

I won't even consider these new "eco friendly" light bulbs... they're full of mercury vapor. If you break one you've got a toxic mess that is clearly dangerous to living things. I also can't stand the light they emit... it gives me headaches. I've stocked up on incandescent bulbs for now. They've got to find a way to get rid of the mercury before I'll go near them.

[Genders]

05:46 PM on 01/20/2011

If you want less mercury exposure, use CFLs.
"Approximately 0.0234 mg of mercury—plus carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide—releases into the air per 1 kwh of electricity that a coal-fired power plant generates. Over the 7500-hour average range of one CFL, then, a plant will emit 13.16 mg of mercury to sustain a 75-watt incandescent bulb but only 3.51 mg of mercury to sustain a 20-watt CFL (the lightning equivalent of a 75-watt traditional bulb). Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into the environment over its lifetime."
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/news/4217864

Sure LED's are better for where you need small amounts of light. But CFL's are the right choice till LEDS take over the market.

As to appearance: you will want to shop around. Learn what "color temperature" you like, I like 5500K, which matches Summer Sunlight. That may be too blue for you. Go to a local hardware store that has the lamps on display, and figure out what you like. New CFL's should: come on instantly, not flicker, and not make any noise. If they do, return them.

if you want to get really technical, see if you see the "Rendering index" is. This is the sun compared accuracy of the colors seen under the light.

http://www.lightsearch.com/resources/lightguides/colormetrics.html

[monroele]

04:23 PM on 01/20/2011

I did everything they recommend to cut down on energy consumption. The right appliances, the right bulbs and I made sure that my house is well insulated. My energy bill goes up and up and up.l It is a loosing battle. Teh thing I really want are solar panels on my roof, but they are so expensive that at my age it would never pay off.

[Genders]

05:34 PM on 01/20/2011

Don't be so sure. Solar panels have dropped to about 1$ per W in single roof quantities. http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm
With various state and fed subsidies, it could be free, and immediately cut your monthly energy bill.
http://www.dsireusa.org/

[monroele]

06:52 PM on 01/20/2011

Thank you so much. I will look into it. So far I went on some websites which made you calculate how much you could save and they always started with an energy bill which was much higher than mine I have a small house and I am very energy conscious.

[BlueKansas]

03:57 PM on 01/20/2011

Oh yeah. What could be more consumer friendly than a light bulb that must be handled by the base only because breaking the glass could release mercury onto your skin? Can anything be more convenient than stockpiling spent CFL bulbs until your community's haz waste recycle day, because these bulbs can't go in the trash? But they probably do, you know, and I wonder how much mercury is ending up in landfills.

And lastly, I can't think of anything more worthwhile than spending $16.50 apiece for the dimmable CFL bulbs in the six sconce lights in our bedroom. Wow! I get to spend a hundred bucks on light bulbs for the bedroom! Sure hope I live long enough to see the cost savings from that little investment!

I'll compost everything I can, recycle everything I can. I'll use gray water for the plants and shut off the water while I brush my teeth. I'll take short showers. But I will not use those ugly, expensive , hazardous light bulbs.

[MORE COW BELL]

12:14 AM on 01/21/2011

Especially when their made in China......You know the guys who brought us "wild Salmon" raised in sewage ponds, Tainted Dog Food, And my favorite LEAD in kids toys...

[BoFo]

03:39 AM on 01/21/2011

You saved me some energy because I was going to write everything you wrote and now I don't have to because you wrote it already.

[John Mainstream]

03:48 PM on 01/20/2011

Break one of these and you've got to call HAZMAT. Hardly green-friendly technology. We have a half dozen of these. They are expensive. They don't last nearly as long as the label claims. Light quality is poor. In contrast, we've got some flashlights with LEDs that are great!

[missouriwatcher]

03:27 PM on 01/20/2011

I'm waiting for the LED's; of course, since they have roughly the same wavelengths as sunlight, the cops will not like them and will probably seek to have them banned.