Efficient Lighting Blog

Energy costs continue to rise, placing ever-greater pressure on households. And the energy you use to heat and cool your home is a large part of your carbon footprint.

By knowing what to look for you can conduct your own home energy audit. Here’s how to get started.

1. Get to Know Your Energy Bills

Bills are never fun, but don’t forget that they contain valuable information along with the pain. Compare your heating and cooling costs by month for as many years past as you can, and look for trends in usage or obvious changes. Do you see any spikes? Can you remember why? Your utility can make older bills available to you by calling customer service.

Note both the kilowatt hours you are typically using as well as the amount your utility is charging per KWH. Get to know what it is that you are paying for every month.

2. Check out The Daily Green’s Checklist

Download our checklist here so you’ll be able to keep track of what you find, and prioritize improvements based on importance and your budget.

3. Locate Air Leaks

Simple leaks can sap home energy efficiency by 5 to 30% a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. So take a close look at places where two different building materials meet, such as corners, around chimneys, where pipes or wires exit and along the foundation. Make sure good seals form around doors and windows, and that no mortar is cracked. Any gaps or holes should be plugged and/or caulked.

Use the incense test: carefully (avoiding drapes and other flammables) move a lit stick along walls; where the smoke wavers, you have air sneaking in. And heating or cooling sneaking out.

Make sure the floor of your attic, including the hatch, is insulated, and that the material isn’t crumbling or compacted, which means it has lost its effectiveness. Similarly, check your basement ceiling, as well as basement walls. Hot water pipes and furnace ducts should be insulated. So should exterior walls (determine this by carefully removing the cover from a power plug, or drill a small hole in the back of a closet).

If you live in snow country, a simple test of insulation levels is to see if snow melts from your roof faster than from neighbors’ roofs. If so, you are probably losing too much heat.

If you find any problems, call in a professional, or go DIY and buy some fresh insulation yourself. Learn more about insulation here.

4. Examine Heating and Cooling Equipment

Not surprisingly, heating and cooling usually account for the biggest home energy loads. To reduce waste, check to see if your furnace filters look dirty. If so, swap them out (usually needed every month or two during the heating season). Or invest in an electrostatic permanent filter, which cuts down on waste and does a much better job of cleaning the air. If you have central air conditioning, check the coils both inside (usually in the basement) and outside. If they have dirt on them, carefully vacuum it off (you may need to first remove the protective grilles).

Make sure all your vents are open in rooms you want conditioned, but close the ones in rooms you hardly use. Ensure vents are clean and unobstructed. Vacuum away any dust.

Examine ductwork for dirt streaks, which mark leaks. You can often fix problems with duct tape or insulation. If your ducts look very dirty or worn, call a professional to get an estimate on a thorough cleaning or replacement. Also put on your calendar: annual pro inspection of your entire heating and cooling system.

5. Analyze Your Appliances

Appliances are major energy users, so your task should be to identify models that may be costing you a lot, and to find ways to trim waste. Buy or borrow a Kill A Watt Electric Usage Monitor. All you do is plug it into a wall socket, and then insert the plug for the electronic device that you wish to monitor. It will give you detailed info on energy use, and even has a “money button” to show you how much the unit costs you to operate.

Begin by checking your major appliances with the Kill A Watt. If older units are found to cost you a lot, you have motivation to upgrade to a new high-efficiency model (and make sure it is Energy Star certified).

If your fridge and freezer are using too much juice, you may simply need to turn down the temperature dials, or clean or repair seals. In general the EPA recommends keeping refrigerators at 37 degrees F and freezers at 3 degrees. You may also not have realized how much certain appliances require, from hair dryers to heated water beds, so you may decide to use less important items more sparingly.

If you don’t have a Kill A Watt, you can still estimate how much energy an appliance uses with the following formula: (Wattage x Hours Used Per Day ÷ 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption (1 kilowatt (kW) = 1,000 Watts). The wattage of an appliance will be stamped on the item. To get the annual consumption, multiply this by the number of days you use the appliance during the year (divide the time by 3 to account for the idling time of your refrigerator). Calculate the annual cost to run an appliance by multiplying the kWh per year by your local utility’s rate per kWh consumed.

6. Look for Energy Vampires

Ever heard of an “energy vampire” or “phantom load”? When electronics like TVs, DVD players and cell phone chargers are plugged in but not on, they still draw power, resulting in about 8% of our annual electric bills.

It’s simple to stop the drain: look around your house, and unplug any unused devices you find! To make it even easier, plug your electronics into a power strip, and switch that off when you are finished channel surfing, jamming or charging up. It will keep the energy vampires at bay.

7. See the Light

Lighting eats up about 10% of a typical electric bill. Swap out high-wattage bulbs with lower users, ideally CFLs. Start with one or two bulbs in the places where you have lights on the longest; you don’t need to rush out and try to replace every bulb all at once. Also be aware that rapid on and off switching decreases the life of CFLs, so it may not be worth it to install the pricier bulbs in places like closets, where you rarely have the lights on. In such areas, try a lower-wattage regular bulb, like a 40 W instead of a 60 W.

Consider how you use lighting in each room. Instead of always hitting the main overheads, would your lifestyle be better served by installing some low-wattage task lighting? Think desk and reading lamps or even night-lights instead. Get rid of halogen torch-style floor lamps, which use a tremendous amount of energy. Also consider installing motion detectors, which are especially good for halls and exterior lights, since you don’t have to worry about people accidentally leaving them on.

check out www.buy-cfls.com for energy efficient lighting fixtures and lamps

8. Gauge the Results

After you have made some improvements, revisit your audit steps in a month or two. Get our your energy bills, and compare. Did your usage drop? Consider going back through the steps above, looking for any appliances or areas you missed before. Want more savings? Go deeper with a Web-based audit tool, such as this one.

It also may be time to bring in the pros for a full-service, high-tech energy audit. Call your utility to see if it subsidizes the service (some offer it free during part of the year), and ask if it can recommend local providers. Learn more about the industry here.

Additional cities join World Wildlife Fund’s global climate change movement taking place on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 8p.m.

Support for 2008’s Earth Hour (www.earthhour.org) continues to build as globally recognized landmarks and buildings, such as the Sears Tower and Golden Gate Bridge, as well as sports teams and corporations, including the Phoenix Suns, Hewlett Packard, Esurance and National Geographic Channel, join the climate change movement sweeping the world. On Saturday, March 29 at 8p.m. local time, millions of people around the world will turn off their lights to show how by working together we can make a difference in the fight against climate change. Starting in Christchurch, New Zealand; Earth Hour will roll through 14 time zones, wrapping up in the Pacific Time zone representative San Francisco, CA. Traversing more than 25 cities in 10 countries, Earth Hour will be the largest voluntary power down in history. To date, 25 cities around the globe have been designated by World Wildlife Fund as official Earth Hour flagship cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco in the United States. As momentum builds, additional cities in the U.S. including Honolulu, HI; Denver, CO, Miami, FL, Charlotte, NC, Martha’s Vineyard, MA, and Homer Glen, IL are joining the movement by partnering with the local mayor’s office and staging their own Earth Hour events.

Some of the country’s tallest buildings including the John Hancock Building in Chicago and the Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta as well as iconic landmarks like the Georgia Aquarium and Alcatraz have all signed on to turn off their lights during Earth Hour. Sports teams from around the country including the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks will also turn off select non-essential lighting on the exterior of their stadiums and arenas during the event. McDonald’s will turn off its golden arches in over 480 locations in Chicago land and Northwest Indiana. Hewlett Packard, the official National Technology Partner of Earth Hour, has demonstrated their commitment to green initiatives through their on-going involvement with WWF. They have signed on as a sponsor of Earth Hour this year and will to turn off the lighting at their corporate headquarters outside of San Francisco. National Geographic Channel, the national media partner for Earth Hour, will turn off non-essential lights at their headquarters in DC and will air nearly 100 TV spots advertising the movement. Esurance, a national partner as well, is adding Earth Hour to their long list of environmental initiatives they actively participate in each year.  Individuals and businesses from around the world can sign up to participate in Earth Hour at

www.earthhour.org.

Scientists agree that even a small increase in the global temperature would lead to significant climate and weather changes, affecting cloud cover, precipitation, wind patterns, the frequency and severity of storms, and the duration of seasons.

·         Rising temperatures would raise sea levels as well, reducing supplies of fresh water as flooding occurs along coastlines worldwide and salt water reaches inland. ·         Many of the world’s endangered species would become extinct as rising temperatures changed their habitat. ·         Millions of people also would be affected, especially poor people who live in precarious locations or depend on the land for a subsistence living. ·         Certain vector-borne diseases carried by animals or insects, such as malaria, would become more widespread as warmer conditions expanded their range.Carbon Dioxide Emissions are the Biggest Problem
Currently, carbon dioxide accounts for more than 60 percent of the enhanced greenhouse effect caused by the increase of greenhouse gases, and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing by more than 10 percent every 20 years. If emissions of carbon dioxide continue to grow at current rates, then the level of the gas in the atmosphere will likely double, or possibly even triple, from pre-industrial levels during the 21st century. Climate Changes are Inevitable
According to the United Nations, some climate change is already inevitable because of emissions that have occurred since the dawn of the Industrial Age. While the Earth’s climate does not respond quickly to external changes, many scientists believe that global warming already has significant momentum due to 150 years of industrialization in many countries around the world. As a result, global warming will continue to affect life on Earth for hundreds of years, even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and the increase in atmospheric levels halted. What is Being Done to Reduce Global Warming?
To lessen those long-term effects, many nations, communities and individuals are taking action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming by reducing dependence on fossil fuels, increasing the use of renewable energy, expanding forests, and making lifestyle choices that help to sustain the environment. Whether they will be able to recruit enough people to join them, and whether their combined efforts will be enough to head off the most serious effects of global warming, are open questions that can only be answered by future developments.

What Causes the Greenhouse Effect?

Life on earth depends on energy from the sun. About 30 percent of the sunlight that beams toward Earth is deflected by the outer atmosphere and scattered back into space. The rest reaches the planet’s surface and is reflected upward again as a type of slow-moving energy called infrared radiation. As infrared radiation is carried aloft by air currents, it is absorbed by “greenhouse gases” such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane, which slows its escape from the atmosphere. This phenomenon is what scientists call the “greenhouse effect.” Without it, scientists estimate that the average temperature on Earth would be colder by approximately 30 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit), far too cold to sustain our current ecosystem.

How Do Humans Contribute to the Greenhouse Effect?

While the greenhouse effect is an essential environmental prerequisite for life on Earth, there really can be too much of a good thing. The problems begin when human activities distort and accelerate the natural process by creating more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than are necessary to warm the planet to an ideal temperature.

• Burning natural gas, coal and oil —including gasoline for automobile engines—raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

• Many factories produce long-lasting industrial gases that do not occur naturally, yet contribute significantly to the enhanced greenhouse effect and “global warming” that is currently under way.

• Population growth is another factor in global warming, because as more people use fossil fuels for heat, transportation and manufacturing the level of greenhouse gases continues to increase. As more farming occurs to feed millions of new people, more greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere. Ultimately, more greenhouse gases means more infrared radiation trapped and held, which gradually increases the temperature of the Earth’s surface and the air in the lower atmosphere.

The Average Global Temperature is Increasing Quickly

Today, the increase in the Earth’s temperature is increasing with unprecedented speed. To understand just how quickly global warming is accelerating, consider this: During the entire 20th century, the average global temperature increased by about 0.6 degrees Celsius (slightly more than 1 degree Fahrenheit). Using computer climate models, scientists estimate that by the year 2100 the average global temperature will increase by 1.4 degrees to 5.8 degrees Celsius (approximately 2.5 degrees to 10.5 degrees Fahrenheit).

They’re breakable, contain toxic material, and are becoming increasingly commonplace. But fears of mercury poisoning from new energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs are overplayed, experts say.Long billed as a “green” product for environmentally conscious consumers, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are quickly becoming the norm in household lighting—and may soon replace traditional incandescent bulbs altogether.

But CFLs’ cool-burning illumination is made possible by a pinch of poison—about five milligrams of mercury sealed inside every glass tube—and the need for the element is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin and long-lived environmental contaminant, and even the small amount present in CFLs poses a problem. When the bulbs break, either in the house or at a waste disposal site, their mercury content is released.

According to a few vocal CFL opponents, such as Fox News Web site’s “Junk Science” correspondent Steve Milloy, that makes the bulbs unsafe.

These critics have charged environmentalists with being uncharacteristically “pro-mercury” when it comes to the lights.

The critics often cite the recent story of a resident of Ellsworth, Maine, who amassed a clean-up bill of more than 2,000 U.S. dollars by shattering a single CFL in her home. The story originally appeared in the Ellsworth American and quickly spread to other newspapers, such as Canada’s National Post and the Washington Times.

But the enormous bill came about as a result of bad advice—a fact often omitted in follow-ups to the original article.

“There’s a lot of misleading information out there,” said Joel Hogue, president of Elemental Services and Consulting, an Ohio-based company specializing in the cleanup of sites contaminated with mercury. “But when people learn the facts, the level of hysteria dies down.”

Like with many other household products, Hogue said, the use of CFLs requires some commonsense precautions. But if a bulb breaks, his company’s clean-up services are not required.

“There’s an extremely small amount of mercury in those bulbs,” Hogue said. “It’s a very minimal risk” and can easily be cleaned up at home.

One CFL contains a hundred times less mercury than is found in a single dental amalgam filling or old-style glass thermometer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The concerns over mercury have not resulted in any significant dimming of support for CFLs.

The governments of Canada and Australia recently announced plans to phase out the sale of incandescent bulbs by 2012, and similar “ban the bulb” efforts are taking place in countries around the world.

In March a coalition of environmental groups joined Philips Lighting, the world’s largest lighting manufacturer, in a new initiative aimed at transitioning the U.S. to CFLs by 2016.

Philips has announced plans to discontinue marketing incandescents in the U.S. and Europe by that date, and major retailers such as Wal-Mart have plans for greatly increasing their sale of CFLs.

The switch is occurring because CFLs are proven cost and energy-savers. Traditional incandescent bulbs are highly inefficient—about 90 percent of the energy they consume produces heat rather than illumination.

A compact fluorescent bulb can produce the same amount of light for less than quarter of the energy and last eight to ten times as long. A switch to CFLs would save an average household about 50 U.S. dollars a year in electricity bills, according to government estimates.

Because of these benefits, CFLs are widely seen as an “easy” first step for nations seeking to reduce global warming. The burning of coal for electrical power is a major source of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is now widely believed to be changing the earth’s climate (see interactive overview of climate change).

According to a recent report by the Washington, D.C.-based Earth Policy Institute, a worldwide shift to CFLs would permit the closing of more than 270 coal-fired power plants. Switching to CFLs in the U.S. alone could save the energy output of 80 plants.

For environmentalists, the clincher is that by requiring less energy, CFLs will actually cut down on mercury pollution produced by coal burning, and EPA agrees.

“By using less electricity, CFLs help reduce mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants, which are the largest source of human-caused mercury emissions in the United States,” said agency press officer Ernest Jones. (Related: “Clean Coal? New Technology Buries Greenhouse Emissions” [May 2, 2006].)

Reuse, Recycle—And Don’t Vacuum

While their mercury doesn’t make CFLs unsafe, experts say, it does place them alongside many other household products—from paint to batteries—that need to be used and disposed of in a responsible manner.

Michael Bender directs the Vermont-based Mercury Policy Project, an organization dedicated to reducing mercury pollution worldwide. He said up to 95 percent of the mercury contained in CFLs can be recovered if the bulbs are recycled properly.

“The best option for managing a spent CFL is to recycle it. Short of that, the next best option is to safely store the lamp until an opportunity for recycling becomes available,” Bender said.

But many consumers don’t know where to recycle the light bulbs—or remain oblivious to the need for special disposal in the first place.

Recycling opportunities, however, should soon be increasing as CFLs become established as mainstream household lighting. Retailers such as Ikea have store-based collection centers for used bulbs, and a similar program is being developed by Home Depot in Canada.

“Recycling programs are already in place in many areas,” noted mercury clean-up expert Hogue. “Community leaders don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”

If recycling is not possible, used CFLs should be sealed inside a plastic bag and taken to a household hazardous waste disposal site, just as should batteries, oil-based paint, and motor oil, EPA recommends.

Web sites such as Earth 911 and Light Recycle can provide local disposal options.

And if a CFL does shatter on the floor, the greatest danger may be the broken glass.

But to minimize exposure to mercury vapor, EPA and other experts advise a few precautions.

Children and pets should stay away from the area, the agency says, and windows should be opened for at least 15 minutes so that vapors may disperse. Cleanup can be done by hand using disposable materials, the expersts add.

“Use rubber disposable gloves and scoop up the materials with stiff paper or cardboard,” Bender said. “Use sticky tape to pick up small pieces and powder, clean the area with a damp paper towel, and dispose of the materials in an outside trash can.”

“Never use a vacuum,” Hogue added. This, he said, will only disperse the mercury vapor and leave particles trapped inside the cleaner bag.

Scott Norris
for National Geographic News

May 18, 2007

Fluorescent light bulbs (including compact fluorescents) are more energy-efficient than regular bulbs because of the different method they use to produce light. Regular bulbs (also known as incandescent bulbs) create light by heating a filament inside the bulb; the heat makes the filament white-hot, producing the light that you see. A lot of the energy used to create the heat that lights an incandescent bulb is wasted. A fluorescent bulb, on the other hand, contains a gas that produces invisible ultraviolet light (UV) when the gas is excited by electricity. The UV light hits the white coating inside the fluorescent bulb and the coating changes it into light you can see. Because fluorescent bulbs don’t use heat to create light, they are far more energy-efficient than regular incandescent bulbs.

Click here to see purchase Efficient Lighting CFLs

What’s the difference between a compact fluorescent light bulb and a fluorescent bulb?
The primary difference is in size; compact fluorescent bulbs are made in special shapes (which require special technologies) to fit in standard household light sockets, like table lamps and ceiling fixtures. In addition, most compact fluorescent lamps have an “integral” ballast that is built into the light bulb, whereas most fluorescent tubes require a separate ballast independent of the bulb. Both types offer energy-efficient light.

www.efficientlightingco.com

What compact fluorescent light bulb do I buy to replace a 60-, 75-, 100- or 150-watt regular bulb? How are the watts calculated?

While a regular (incandescent) light bulb uses heat to produce light, a fluorescent bulb creates light using an entirely different method that is far more energy-efficient — in fact, 4-6 times more efficient. This means that you can buy a 15-watt compact fluorescent bulb that produces the same amount of light as a 60-watt regular incandescent bulb.

Don’t worry about the math, though — we make it easy for you to figure out which compact fluorescent bulb to buy by displaying the equivalent regular watts you’re used to prominently on the package. Just look for the wattage you would normally buy in a regular bulb. In case you’re curious, here are the watts needed by regular incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs to produce the same amount of light.

Sun West Properties located at 18303 Gridley Ave. in Cerritos is a two story office building which had 4 lamp 2X4 T1240watt fixtures. Efficient Lighting Co. assessed the situation and in conjunction with the local utility to come up with a plan to reduce their energy costs while giving them better lighting.

Efficient Lighting Co. updated their old fixtures to new energy efficient parabolic T8 fixtures while being able to secure a rebate as well to offset the cost of the installation for the client. This gave them twice the lumens from what they already had to a much brighter crisper lighting.

After checking with some of the employees they love it. They can see better and their attitude is better. One comment was made that it keeps them awake and they have more energy. Efficient Lighting is a proud leader in Energy Efficient Lighting and we look forward to making this happen for you as well.

Click here for more details

Call us for a free lighting survey.

Lighting accounts for 20 to 25 percent of the electricity used annually in the United States. Lighting for industry, stores, offices, and warehouses represents from 80 to 90 percent of total lighting electricity use.If energy-efficient lighting was used everywhere it was profitable, the electricity required for lighting would be cut by 50 percent and aggregate national electricity demand would be reduced by 10 percent. Energy savings would exceed $12 billion a year while decreasing air pollution by five percent. This would be equivalent to taking 15 million cars off the road, resulting in less smog, acid rain and a slowing of global climate change. By the year 2010, the EPA’s target is to increase the Green Lights program to 6,000 participants for a total annual energy savings of 30.5 billion kilowatt-hours. The estimated annual impact of fulfilling this is a 7.5 million metric ton reduction in green house emissions, which is equal to taking over one million cars off U.S. highways or planting over two million acres of trees.

Click here for our cfl comparison 

By Alan J. Heavens

Light bulbs are synonymous with bright ideas — in cartoons, at any rate. But compact fluorescent bulbs can also be a small, yet brilliant, step toward energy efficiency. The Energy Department says they use 66 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last 10 times longer.

· Why buy: Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) are available in different sizes and shapes, including mini-spiral, spiral and A-line, that fit almost any fixture. On average, each bulb can save more than $30 in electricity costs over its lifetime and prevent more than 450 pounds of greenhouse-gas emissions. CFLs and fixtures that use them that have earned the EPA’s Energy Star rating produce about 70 percent less heat, so they’re safer to use and can help cut energy costs associated with home cooling. (Consider that a halogen bulb in a torchiere lamp is 700 to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit.)

· Need to know: How to choose the right bulb or fixture? Look for one that offers the same lumen rating as the light you’re replacing. Manufacturers often label these products in terms of watt replacement, which can also guide your decision-making. Energy-efficient lighting will provide the same or more light while using fewer watts. Dimmers enable you to set the mood with a range of light output, but check the bulb or fixture’s packaging first, to be sure it will perform well on a dimmer.

· Operating manual: For the biggest energy savings, replace incandescents or halogens with CFLs in the rooms you spend the most time in, such as your family and living rooms, kitchen and porch. Place the bulbs in open fixtures that allow air flow.

· Cautionary tale: CFLs contain very small amounts of mercury sealed within the glass tubing — an average of 5 milligrams, roughly the amount of ink on the tip of a ballpoint pen. Mercury enables the CFL to be an efficient light source; there is currently no substitute for it, but manufacturers have been trying to reduce the amount used. CFLs are safe to use in the home, according to the Energy Department: No mercury is released when the bulbs are in use, and they pose no danger if used properly, though care should be taken when handling because the tubing is glass.

· Disposal issues: Don’t throw CFLs away with the household trash if better disposal options exist. Check Earth911.org, which locates disposal options by Zip code, call the Environmental Recycling Hotline at 877-327-8491, or contact your local waste-management agency for community guidelines. Additional information is available at Lamprecycle.org. Ikea stores accept used CFLs, and other retailers are considering it. If no other disposal options are available except the trash can, place CFLs in a plastic bag and seal it. Never send a CFL or other mercury-containing product to an incinerator.

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