LIGHTING WITH ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Aside from air conditioning, home lighting is one source of electricity expense. Insufficient light at home can affect your health as it can cause headache and eyestrain. Then there is also the chance of getting an accident such as falling, tripping or slipping if lighting is insufficient.
A few decades ago, traditional incandescent bulbs is the only option for lighting your home. It only varies on the wattage on how bright the bulb should be, but still your only option is incandescent bulb. The bulb is an electric light which utilize heated wire filament so it glows and produce light. People were using incandescent bulbs for a long time even though it accounts for high electricity cost.
CFLs
Thanks to innovation, here comes compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These new lightbulbs gave tremendous reduction in energy-cost which put the traditional incandescent bulb to shame. Instead of using heated wire, CFL works by using a bit of mercury and argon which runs to a tube and when driven by electricity, produces an ultraviolet light which emits visible light. Though the use of mercury is still questionable and thus requires proper disposal of CFL, it is still comparably cheaper to use compared to incandescent bulb. It also lasts longer–about 8x at–than the traditional incandescent bulb. The drawbacks of using CFL is that frequent power cycling (on/off) reduces its life span. It also cannot be used for dimming and it is as fragile as the incandescent bulb.
LEDs
Good thing, we’re still left with another alternative–the LEDS. LED works by using semiconductors to produce light. Although the initial investment for an LED bulb is almost 10x the price of a traditional incandescent bulb, in the long run you will save more money by choosing LED as it lasts from 20,000 ~50,000 hours. Not to mention that it will save you the frequent visit to the hardware store too! LEDs are even more durable (less prone to breaking unlike the very fragile incandescent and CFLs), dimmable and comes in variety of design and color.
Using CFL and LED instead of traditional incandescent bulbs not only gave consumers an energy-saving solution, they also aid in saving the environment from tons of greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere. Since designers and homebuilders are more aware now on the effect of heat on the environment they are also incorporate natural lighting in their designs.
Eco-friendly or energy-saving and all, as the one paying the bill, nothing beats being proactive on saving electricity usage by yourself. The only thing to remember is this: ‘when not in use, turn the lights off!’
Sources:
https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/healthy-home/5-benefits-energy-efficient-lighting/
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/home-energy-efficiency/lighting
