Things you can do at Home

Sometimes I am asked by friends and family if there are any things one can do at home to improve their energy consumption. In terms of lighting, there are some things that you can do right away without major household renovation. This post will focus mostly on compact fluorescent lighting.

First and foremost, follow your parent's rules and turn off lights in rooms you're not in.

Secondly, replace the common A-lamp style light bulbs you're probably using with screw in compact fluorescent. They are available at most local hardware stores and certainly at the big chains like Home Depot and Lowes. Not to delve too deeply into the compact fluorescent, but many people instantly gasp at the idea of their living room being lit by a fluorescent source. A few things, I would recommend.

Compact Fluorescent (CFL) lamps come in many shapes and sizes now. No longer are you stuck with the unsightly curly-q lamps with the exposed coil. Most manufactures make a version with a plastic dome, that both softens the quality of the light and leaves the primary source hidden. There are also CFL's build with candelabra bases for your sconces and smaller fixtures. I even got my parents to install CFL flood lights outside, which even to this day my father raves about.

There are some things to be aware of when considering CFL light bulbs for your household fixtures. First and foremost is shape and look (mentioned above). But second and just as important is the color temperature of the given light bulb. Without bogging down in the science of color temperature, I will sum it up this way. Color temperature describes the relative "whiteness" of the light source. For instance, a candle would be considered a very "warm" light source, the sun on a bright day a very "cool" source. Incandescent light bulbs (the kind we are used to) are fairly warm. They burn a filament generating a typical color temperature of around 2700 degree kelvin, while the sun at midday is around 5000 degrees kelvin. Why is all of this important? Because a standard CFL comes in a color temperature similar to the sun and even cooler (5600 kelvin). This is useful if you are lighting say, a retail store and want your overhead light to be similar to that of the sunlight streaming in from the bay window. But in typical home applications lamps and other fixtures will be on in the evening and at night when a warmer tone is desired. Look for CFL lamps with a color temperature of anywhere from 2500 to 3200 degrees kelvin. Many manufacturer's are simplifying these temperature readings by marking the package "daylight" (5600k) or "incandescent" (2500-3000k).

Another tip, some manufacturers are boasting "dimmable" CFL lamps. Again, to shorten what could be a a very long discussion. Fluorescent lights dim by means of their ballast which reduces the amount of electricity igniting the gas inside the tube. Manufacturers are embedding small, and cheap ballasts in the bases of their CFL's to allow them to dim on typical household dimmers. I've tested several brands of dimmable CFL and they return similar results, flickering and color shift is very common. I would recommend for at least the time being staying away from these.

When possible, using CFL's with a shade will hide and warm the light source. I have had CFL's in my house now for years and guests never know the difference.

A few other things to consider. When you turn on a CFL it doesn't come to it's full brightness immediately like an incandescent lamp. Rather, it takes time for the gas in the coil to heat completely and come to full bright. Some find this annoying, others like the lighting ramping up.

Most importantly when it comes to CFL technology for nearly know sacrifice in lighting quality you get a huge energy and sustainability boost. For one thing a typical 60 watt incandescent light bulb gives off as much light as a 13 watt CFL. For another an incandescent light bulb lasts usually 6 months. A CFL-up to 7 years! That's sustainability.




I hope this was helpful. Be back soon.