Efficient Lighting Blog

Lighting consumes 22% of the electrical power generated in the U.S. When you select energy-efficient lighting, you:• Save a lot of money;

• Reduce the need for additional power plants;

• Reduce greenhouse gases and other pollution; and,

• Are able to use lighting in ways you never thought possible.

Engineers on large remodeling projects find that energy-efficient lighting affords a higher payback than any other energy-efficient system. That includes heating, ventilation, air conditioning, appliances and computer equipment.

Sustainable resource consumption is everyone’s responsibility. Choosing energy-efficient lighting is the easiest way to save money on power. The choice is up to you. What you choose matters to you and the environment.

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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Americans are more than making good on their pledges to help fight climate change by replacing their light bulbs with ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs). EPA estimates that ENERGY STAR CFL sales for 2007 were nearly double what they were in 2006, accounting for about 20% of the light bulb market in the U.S. To date, the national ENERGY STAR Change a Light campaign has received more than 1.2 million pledges from Americans across the country to change nearly 4 million light bulbs to ENERGY STAR CFLs. This means a potential savings of more than $100 million in energy costs and the prevention of more than 1.5 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

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