From Guest Blogger Lana Hawkins: Eco-Friendly Lighting Solutions for Your Home
One of the main principles of sustainability is accepting certain ecologically friendly practices in order to preserve our natural resources. Energy consumption is one of the main criteria in the sustainability movement, and that is why introducing these eco-friendly lighting solutions into your household could help you save both money and energy in the process.
Natural Is Always Better
The most effective eco-friendly lighting solution for your home is taking advantage of the natural sunlight. While this option is available only for a certain amount of time, it is definitely one of the best ways to harvest the sun’s energy without using electricity. This can be accomplished quite easily by installing ceiling-to-floor windows, glass doors and even skylights on the roof of your house. Natural light is not only cost-effective and eco-friendly but also carries many health benefits.
Start With The Basics
One of the easiest ways to embrace the eco-friendly practice in your home is switching from regular incandescent light bulbs to more energy-efficient solutions such as CFL or LED light bulbs. Australia is one of the leading countries of these sustainable trends, and was actually one of the first countries to start the campaign of phasing out old incandescent lights. The reason for this is quite obvious, as CFL and LED lamps are known to consume far less energy and last for a longer period of time. Compared to traditional bulbs, compact fluorescent bulbs use up about a quarter of energy of a traditional bulb, while light emitting diodes may last between 40,000 and 80,000 hours.
Read The Labels
Another important thing that can greatly help you turn your household in a sustainable haven is carefully choosing the types of lighting products. In the last couple of years, the market has become swarmed with eco-friendly lighting solutions which are energy star certified. These certified products are designed to help you save on your energy bills, but also save the environment in the process. The next time you go shopping for fixtures, make sure to choose bulbs, lamps, ceiling fans and other products which are certified as eco-friendly.
Motion Solution
While all of these options can significantly help you in your eco-friendly venture, there are always additional things you could do in order to make your home more energy-efficient. It is not just about the type of products you purchase and use, it’s also about your personal mindset and how you use those products. Remembering to turn off the lights when you exit the room or switch off the appliances when not using them might seem banal, but it actually has a much greater impact than you think. Of course, a handy solution exists in a form of motion sensor lights which are designed to automatically turn off when a motion is not detected.
Light Up Your Yard
Achieving an enchanting ambience in your backyard is now possible even during night-time by installing solar lighting systems around the property. While they preserve the look of traditional garden fixtures, they actually contain solar panels which absorb sunlight during the day and automatically turn on when the night starts falling. There is a number of stores recommended by the experts, one of them being Superlight, which offers an array of affordable and eco-friendly products.
The era of sustainability is already upon us and has made a significant impact on today’s life. While many people observe it as a global trend, sustainable development is a complex process which includes four interconnected domains: ecology, economics, politics and culture. This socio-ecological practice has found its way into every sphere of our lives and as such should be implemented in everyone’s household.
The article recommended a large glass area to take advantage of natural light. However, because windows, even ones designed to be efficient, do not insulate nearly as well as solid walls, a high degree of fenestration is not generally energy efficient. The increased heating and cooling loads resulting from high fenestration use more power than efficient lighting uses. That said, my house is highly fenestrated because there is a good view and I’ve attempted to compensate by incorporating other efficiencies into the house including good insulation and efficient heating and cooling.
In places where their “on” time doesn’t amount to much, incandescent lights often make the most sense. However, incandescent lights should not be used where “on” time is significant.
Often when one household member replaces incandescent bulbs with CFLs, another household member puts the incandescent bulbs back in. Some people don’t like the light that CFLs emit. To find the solution to selecting CFLs that people will find acceptable, learn about the color rendering index, abbreviated CRI. Information can easily be found with a google search.