10 Ways to Light Your Home and Save Energy

It's not easy to deal with the burgeoning price of fuel at the pump. But it can be lucrative and fun to make your home more friendly to Earth.

Take Seven Oaks Farm's 85-year-old cow barn in St. Charles, Ill. Once abandoned, daylight permeates the residence. At night it uses several energy-efficient flourescent fixtures. A GE Lighting award winner, the cow barn shows how great design can also be "green."

Moved to try it yourself? Here are 10 ways to make your home more energy efficient by changing lighting and lighting systems:

"Knowledgeable homeowners are beginning to utilize energy-efficient compact fluorescent fixtures and lamps," says Kathy Presciano, a specialist at the GE Lighting & Electrical Institute, Cleveland. "They've become smaller in size and render color more naturally."

According to GE Lighting, CFLs can last 10 times longer than standard incandescent bulbs and use 75 percent less energy. One 26-watt ENERGY STAR® qualified CFL will last 8,000 hours. Figuring bulb price and the energy it consumes, the 8,000-hour CFL will cost $25.80 over its life. In contrast, use a 100-watt incandescent bulb instead—for 8,000 hours—and you'll pay $83.73 in bulbs and energy when all's said and done.

"It's one of the best things homeowners can do," says Carrie Arnold, vice president of Phillips Lighting & Home Inc., Modesto, Calif. "Many of the motors are ENERGY STAR rated."

According to Sea Gull Lighting, indoor ceiling fans can reduce energy costs by 40 percent during summer, 10 percent during winter. And today's fans use the energy of a 100-watt light bulb.

According to ENERGY STAR, if every American home exchanged their five most frequently used bulbs for ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs, one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases would be kept out of the air—the annual emissions of 8 million cars.

You save $60 a year by switching five light fixtures to ENERGY STAR qualified models, says Sea Gull Lighting's Jeffrey Beiter. That's because ENERGY STAR qualified light provides more illumination on two-thirds less energy.

"High-wattage, high-output lamps tend to over-light," says Terry McGowan, a director of the International Dark-Sky Assn. (IDA) "Over-lighting is bad practice. It wastes money and energy and creates glare. The traditional barnyard beacons—the mercury vapor lamps that squirt light in all directions—are just visual disasters."

So, replace outdoor lights with low-voltage systems that use photo cells and timers. They put light where it's needed, consume less power and cut evening glare.

Need more dimmers? That's easy to fix. Ask a hardware store or lighting center for help on how to replace toggle switches. It's an inexpensive way to punch on/punch off, dial up/dial down your lights and save energy. Dimmers even expand décor horizons by adding the element of mood to interiors.

Light is amplified when reflected. Take advantage of this when you choose a wall color. "Dark walls suck up light, but light walls make a room brighter," says Susan Kabins, lighting designer and owner of Luminosity Inc., Milwaukee. "Go with lighter walls."

Can you live with fewer lights and lamps? "When people approach lighting their inclination is to flood space with light," says Mary Beth Gotti of the GE Lighting & Electrical Institute.

Rather than overpower rooms, think in terms of highlighting spaces, while providing light for tasks such as reading. Use 40-watt bulbs instead of 60-watt bulbs. Flip off more switches throughout the day. De-illuminate and you'll save energy.

If outdoor lights must run all night, then make sure the light is aimed earthward. Arnold says he recently specified a shielded porch light for a client can. Now the client illuminates his porch without beaming glare into a neighbor's bedroom.

Check darksky.org for a list of products with the IDA's Fixture Seal of Approval."Make sure your product is well shielded and has accessories that adjust and aim the light," says IDA's McGowan. "Please don't shoot light into the sky."

California's new Title 24 is driving a lot of residential lighting. The new law, which is poised to affect other states, requires half of all kitchen lighting to be high-efficiency fixtures. Kitchens are a prime target for saving energy.

We're not suggesting a major remodel. But, you might start by adding more switches. If your kitchen has a bank of recessed lights on one switch, try rewiring the lights into two or three zones, so you can flip on only the lights needed for a given task.

Also, consider replacing a few fixtures. "We transfer people over to fluorescent under-cabinet lights from halogens," says Arnold. "The lighting is terrific—if you can get past the ‘fluorescent' stigma."

LEDs are a type of solid state lighting. They're highly energy efficient and programmable. And, more lighting manufacturers are introducing LED-based products for the home.

"The major advance is that LEDs are now available in white light for general purpose lighting," says Russ Leslie, an architect and researcher at the Lighting Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.

So, prepare now for a whole new kind of light. When you see LED lights in the stores, have the right mind-set. Take the leap and buy some. It's one big step for you, but a giant leap for our world.