Go Green & Save Green with LED Lighting for Your Home
Posted by Eileen Komanecky on Thu, May 19, 2011 @ 11:44 AM
If you are looking for ways to live a greener life at home, you may want to consider LED light fixtures in place of conventional incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen light bulbs. Over the past few years CFL, replacement light bulbs have become a popular choice for people looking to reduce their carbon footprints. CFL bulbs use much less energy than conventional incandescent light bulbs, but they have two problems that keep them from being the perfect green lighting solution. First, the light quality many of these bulbs provide is not as warm as many of us like in our homes. Second, there are hazardous chemicals, such as mercury, in CFL light bulbs which actually make them not so "green" after all. That is why these bulbs should be recycled and not merely thrown in the trash to poison landfills.
LED replacement light bulbs are currently available and improving at a fast pace. LED lights save even more energy than flourescent bulbs and are non toxic. As LED technology improves, the color temperature of the light (how "warm" or "cool" the light quality) is approaching that of the best halogen lights. With the combination of beautiful quality lighting and significant energy savings, LED lights are an excellent option to consider for your home.
Installing a lighting control system is another excellent way to save energy and improve the aestheics of your home. Occupancy and vacancy sensors can automatically turn off unnecessary lights, and proper dimming can make a huge difference in how much energy is consumed. It also makes it easy to quickly set lighting scenes just the way you like them for dining, cooking, entertaining, or bedtime.
LED Light Factoid:
If you watched the Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop in 2011 you saw it illuminated by 9,576 white LEDs which replaced the 600 incandescent bulbs before. The new ball is twice as bright but uses a fraction of its predecessor's electricity.