Lighting

Lighting Your Way to Energy Efficiency

The quantity and quality of light around us determines how well we see, work, and play. Light affects our health, safety, morale, comfort, and productivity. For these reasons and many more, quality should be considered as important as quantity. With current technologies you don't need to sacrifice quality to become more efficient.

Fluorescent technologies have rapidly advanced over the years. Both linear and compact fluorescents now have competitive color rendering properties, higher efficacy and reduced humming and flickering. Reductions in component size, and increased adoption of specialty lamps, has allowed compact fluorescents to achieve a much higher degree of compatibility with existing hardware. In most cases, a fluorescent retrofit, coupled with controls like occupancy sensors can provide cost effective energy saving upgrades for governmental, commercial, industrial and residential applications.

Although often overlooked as a common component of our built space, lighting space intelligently is very important. Lighting directly affects our economy by accounting for 20-25 percent of all electricity consumed in the U.S. An average household dedicates approximately 10 percent of its energy budget to lighting, while commercial establishments dedicate 20-30 percent for lighting. Additionally, a significant portion of the energy used for lighting is wasted by obsolete equipment, inadequate maintenance, or inefficient use.

Improving your lighting efficiency is one of the easiest, most cost effective ways to reduce your electricity consumption, your utility bill, and greenhouse gas emissions. Current technologies can help cut your energy consumption and lighting costs by 30-75 percent while enhancing lighting quality and reducing environmental impacts. This section will provide you with the information necessary to use lighting efficiently,upgrade your lighting fixtures and equipment, and save you money and energy.

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