Let’s talk lighting and green LED light bulbs. There have certainly been story after story from this site about Green Lighting. I mean as you all know since I authored the book Green Lighting with TAB McGraw-Hill.
However, here is a refresher course per se.
According to the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, LED lighting will save Americans more than $30 billion annually in electricity costs and cut lighting consumption in half. All by the year 2030. But there are more incentives to switch to LED lighting than just trimming your budget. According to The Climate Group, lighting accounts for 6 percent of our global CO2 greenhouse emissions. This figure is roughly equal to 70 percent of the CO2 emissions of the world’s passenger cars. Whether your saving money, the environment, or both. For there are easy and creative ways you can go green. But first, let’s take a look at LED’s competition:
Shedding light on the competition
LEDs are also otherwise known as Light Emitting Diodes. For they produce a light when an electrical current passes through. Up until the last few years, LEDs were expensive and didn’t shed enough light for most people’s preferences. Today a 9 watt LED bulb replacing a 60 watt incandescent bulb proves 84 percent more efficient. LEDs cost more to purchase at roughly $15 a pop, but last 25 times longer, or 1,000 hours vs. 25,000 hours of an incandescent bulb. The costs are expect to go down.
CFLs, or compact fluorescent light bulbs, offer long-lasting and efficient lighting solutions, functioning similarly to LEDs. These bulbs contain a minute amount of mercury, less than the tip of a pencil. While this small quantity poses minimal toxicity risks, it raises concerns for some consumers. The potential accumulation of mercury in landfills from discarded CFLs presents a collective environmental issue.
CFLs come with limitations. They don’t function with dimmer switches, limiting their versatility in home lighting setups. Additionally, they prove impractical for recessed lighting fixtures, where they can waste up to half of the energy they produce. This inefficiency in certain applications counteracts their energy-saving benefits.
Despite these drawbacks, CFLs continue to play a role in energy-efficient lighting options. However, consumers must weigh their benefits against potential environmental impacts and usage limitations when choosing lighting solutions for their homes or businesses.
Halogen lamps
Halogen lights are often used for car headlights, workshop lights and outdoor floodlights. Halogens have argon-filled bulbs where a chemical called tungsten evaporates off the filament and darkens the bulb with a soot-like substance. That dark grit eventually dulls the light and can damage the bulb.
Now that you have some insight on why LEDs may be a better choice for your lifestyle, let’s look at ways to infuse them into your life:
Home Decor
Update your home decor by phasing out incandescent and other bulbs in favor of LEDs. Start by stocking up on LEDs for your fixtures and lamps and take it a step further. Consider replacing a chandelier, adding a bath bar light and outdoor LED sconces instead of halogen floodlights.
Using LEDs in your home also offers easy recycling options. Most last five times longer than competing bulbs and need to be recycled less often. If you’re replacing CFLs, you likely already know many states and cities outlaw disposal of the bulbs in the trash due to their mercury content and must be disposed of appropriately.
Cars
Transform your car into an eco-friendly powerhouse by replacing tail, brake, and turn signal lights with LED bulbs. Explore your vehicle to discover less obvious lighting opportunities for LED upgrades, including license plate lights, headlights, and interior illumination. While accessing certain bulbs, like those for license plates, can prove challenging, LEDs offer a significant advantage. These long-lasting bulbs burn out so gradually that you might buy and resell your car before ever needing to replace them. This longevity not only reduces maintenance hassles but also minimizes waste. It’s also contributing to a greener automotive future.
Mobile
Most smartphones, including iPhones, employ LED lighting for screens and other accessories. The bright light makes it easy to transform your phone into a multi-use tool. For example, turn up the light on the screen to use it as a flashlight instead of buying a separate flashlight batteries and bulb. But perhaps the biggest advantage is controlling your home’s LED lighting, and even its color hue, with the use of a handy smartphone app. Phillips Hue now sells LED bulbs with a color palette that are WiFi enabled, making it easy to set the mood or when to turn up and down the lights as needed.
