Save Energy Changing Your Light Bulbs
There is a lot of ways to save on energy at home, home lightning is more important than we think.
Let’s face it, our home lights are something that we care less unless a light bulb goes out. And of course, if that light that went out is part of the main illumination, we do not care how we fix it, but we fix it.
From incandescent to high-efficiency light bulbs, save energy pay less electricity.
I think the high-efficiency light bulbs got popular about 10 years ago. I was very sceptical about the newer high-efficiency light bulbs. They are expensive and change the color, some are brighter than expected. Even if you follow the wattage and luminosity specs, they will never produce the color you think it will. It happened to me, I tried to replace one light bulb and I ended replacing the whole house with the same brand and wattage and luminosity high-efficiency light bulbs. Back then I replace about 60 light bulbs (I never realized I needed that many). Investment of $150.
Indeed, the price difference, especially back in 2009, was very big. However, even the incandescent light bulbs are super cheap, the life span of the incandescent light bulbs is way shorter compared to the next two generations of light bulbs.
Now, I did change the illumination and color of my house and I did like the change. I liked, even more, when I saw a 15% less energy using the very next day. Now you are going to ask, how did he calculate the energy savings by the next day? The answer is easy, back then I was using prepaid electricity, which sends a daily text notification of the residence energy usage. Only prepaid electricity can tell you about your daily usage. This way if you are trying new ideas on how to save on energy, you will see the difference right away.
Save energy with LED light bulbs.
On the other hand, something that I did not know, one of the components of the high-efficiency light bulbs is mercury. Which is a highly toxic material and if the bulb breaks, it can be very harmful to anyone around. Then, another thing that I noticed is that the high-efficiency light bulbs burn out easily. Meaning that they are fragile and have low resistance to impact.
Incidentally, I moved on to LED light bulbs. Yet another investment, another $150 spent. However, these lightbulbs kicked another 15% energy savings. I was very pleased with the energy savings that impacted my electricity bill. The ROI or return over the investment of the LEDs is about a year. Not bad at all in electricity savings.
The main reason that the LEDs save so much energy is illumination capability. LED technology made the lightbulb turn on with very low energy, thus less temperature. Back to the incandescent lightbulb, this one was lit by high temperature in a metal filament. By applying high temperature to the thin filament, this will change color until almost disintegration temperature becomes a bright white filament.
Save even more electricity with these changes with your lights
Afterwards, with time I changed other things. I suggest you do the same.
Section the lights in your house. In a home renovation, you can ask your contractor to have more sections and to separate to fewer light bulbs per section. By way example, our kitchen uses about 15 lightbulbs, in some cases, when the kitchen light switch is turned on, it will activate all 15 lightbulbs. A better way to manage this is by having 4 or 5 different sections of lightning. This way, as an example, if I go to get some water at night, I may not need all 15 light bulbs. However, if I’m making the Thanksgiving Dinner for my whole family, I may use the entire kitchen. Then I may use all sections of the kitchen at the same time.
Dimmers. This was a challenge for the LEDs, however, more and more LEDs are dimmable. This is a very good idea for saving energy and pay less electricity when we have nightlights, timer or sensor lights. Those light may not need to be at full brightness all the time. With that said, use dimmable LEDs for those sections of the house that may just need a little light.
Lamps. In the same way, lamps can help you a lot to reduce your energy consumption, thus pay less on your electricity bill. As mentioned above, it is with the same concept of sectioning your lights. The good things about lamps is that they may help you to décor your home, also, it may need one light bulb to illuminate a big section of the house, or like the Dimmer concept, low light just in the right place to either make the house not look empty or illuminate a path of the hallway, etc.
Big Energy Savings on Christmas Time
Of course, we all like Christmas lights. However, that can turn to a high electricity bill. Which we will need to pay in January, which, for a lot of us, is the hardest month of the year (budget-wise). There are several things we can do in the holiday season and our Christmas lights.
As we said, LEDs. Yes, a little more expensive, however, they will last way longer and will save you energy. Timers or light sensor. A very efficient way to manage your outdoor lights while you stay inside your home warm and cozy during the winter. Remote-controlled switchers; I use these for the last 4 years and I like them even better than the timers. I turn them on and of when I want with a click of a button, anywhere I am. There are some mobile controllers that they may be managed from your cell phone, however, those are more expensive than you may think.
All in all, we would like you to save energy and pay less electricity with these ideas. Make your home smarter and more energy-efficient, it is not that complicated. We need to help our planet heal, somehow.
