Energy Savings Tips: Electrical Lighting & Indoor Lights

Energy Savings Tips: Electrical Lighting & Indoor Lights

Here are ways to save energy on electrical lighting & indoor lights (sorry, "all the time lights-out" doesn't count). These money-saving ideas can help you lower your energy bill by reducing energy consumption in your house or apartment.

You can also help to reduce the demand of electricity at peak electrical demand times - 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. These energy saving tips below may help cut down on the amount of energy you use and trim your household energy costs, while lowering peak demand on your electricity utility company.

Electrical Lighting & Indoor Lights

San Diego Gas & Electric reports that lighting can account for about 12% of your monthly bill (9% for all-electric homes). If each household in San Diego replaced four 100-watt incandescent lights with equivalent 27 -watt CFLs, 400,000,000 kilowatt-hours would be saved each year. Enough to power over 70,000 homes for a year.

Saving energy in lighting costs can be as easy as replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), which use 75% less energy and last up to ten times longer. Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are required to save you at least $30 in energy costs over the bulb's roughly 7,500 to 10,000-hour life. Please note, that the CFL bulbs do have a small amount of mercury content but they contain only a fraction of the mercury in an old-fashioned thermometer.

Each year, the United States throws away 1.741 billion incandescent bulbs-- that's enough to fill two football stadiums. With each CFL, you'll throw away nine less bulbs.

* Replace old light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). They can reduce lighting costs by up to 75% and they last up to ten times longer.
* When leaving your home each day, turn off all unnecessary lights. Yes, that includes the light to the shrine honoring your favorite sports team.
* Use electrical dimmers: By buying solid-state dimmer switches you can increase incandescent bulb life while reducing electric consumption and cost.
* Use motion sensors. Replace light switches with motion or occupancy sensors, which make the lights go on or off when someone enters or leaves a room. Motion sensors are perfect for the garage, exterior or security lighting.
* Install electrical timers. If you sometimes forget to turn off the lights, think about buying a timer to turn lights off and on automatically.
* Use photocells. Photocells automatically turn on your lights when the sun goes down. Then, when the sun rises, the photocell turns the lights off. They're great for outdoor or security lighting.