Posts Tagged ‘Difference’

Energy Star Lighting ? Make a Difference Today

There are very few purchases one can make that truly make a difference in the environment. Hybrid vehicles immediately come to mind, as well as anything made from recycled products – paper and plastic goods especially. Well, there are also major appliances and even lighting fixtures that can make a positive impact on our planet; all you have to do is look for the little blue and white sticker that says “Energy Star.”

The Energy Star program was created in 1992 by the EPA as a means to promote energy efficient consumer products in an attempt to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by power plants. Energy efficient computer products were the first to be labeled, with major appliances, office equipment, home electronics, and the topic of this article – lighting – soon to follow.

Energy Star qualified light fixtures, when used with compact fluorescent bulbs, use about 75% less energy than standard light fixtures. This translates into two things – a positive impact on the environment and a lower energy bill to pay each month. To maximize both the energy and money savings, consider replacing the five most used lighting fixtures in your home, or, at the very least, replacing any standard incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents. In most homes the light fixtures with the highest usage are kitchen ceiling lights, living room (family room) table and floor lamps, and outdoor porch lights. If every American home did this, we would save close to $8 billion in energy costs each year while preventing the greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.

Putting Energy Star lighting in your home used to mean sacrificing style for the energy savings. Not anymore. More lighting manufacturers have started producing Energy Star qualified fixtures in a wide variety of styles and designs as the demand for these energy efficient lights has increased. You can now find Energy Star pendant lights, sconces, chandeliers, and lamps. For a wide variety of Energy Star qualified and solar light fixtures, check out Eco-Lights.com today.

What?s the Difference between the Energy Saving Light Bulbs?

From 1 September 2009 the EU decided to ban the import and stocking of 100 watt and frosted incandescent light bulbs. The landmark decision will help consumers reduce their gas and electricity bills significantly with energy efficient bulb replacements.

However, with a plethora of bulb options available on the market for you to purchase in place of the humble incandescent filament bulb, choosing which bulb is the best for you can be tricky. The two main types of energy efficient bulbs are halogen and florescent lighting. This handy guide will help you to navigate your way through the various lighting options.

Halogen bulbs are not too dissimilar to standard incandescent bulbs in that they also require a tungsten filament to be heated in order to emit light. The halogen lamp differs because it contains a gas from the halogen group, typically iodine gas, which combines with the tungsten vapour at a high temperature to produce light.

Halogen bulbs are able to ‘recycle’ themselves by redepositing tungsten atoms on to the filament as part of the chemical reaction which goes on inside the bulb. This allows the halogen bulb to last much longer than its incandescent predecessor. As halogen bulbs can achieve much higher temperatures for the same amount of energy, this makes them more efficient than incandescent bulbs also, reducing the amount of gas and electricity you use.

The problem with halogen bulbs, as with incandescent bulbs is that ultimately they rely on heating a filament to a high temperature in order to achieve light. This wastes gas and electricity in heat energy radiated from the bulb. Fluorescent lights on the other hand, use a totally different method in order to produce light.

Fluorescent lights give energy to mercury atoms, which gets them excited and causes them to ‘jump’. As the excited atoms fall back down they give off a flare of ultraviolet light, which is converted to visible light through a phosphorous coating. This method does not rely on heat at all, which makes Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) between four and six times more efficient than incandescent filament bulbs, drastically reducing the amount of gas and electricity used.

As CFLs have no filament to burn out, they tend to last much longer as well, up to 10 times the length of the best incandescent bulbs. With greater energy efficiency and longer lasting bulbs, CFLs are the best way to reduce your gas and electricity consumption for lighting purposes.