The Huffington Post recently published a great article about home lighting. We figured some of their ‘little-known facts’ might be no-brainers to our blog readers, so we wanted to share just the best of the information here:
For each $1 you invest in efficient lighting, you will be paid back up to $6 in energy savings.
You have all heard that CFLs beat incandescent bulbs as far as energy efficiency, but exactly how energy efficient they are might draw a blank. Think about it this way: if you use a 75-watt incandescent for six hours a day, you’d pay approximately $54 a year on energy (this includes the costs of replacement bulbs at 75 cents per bulb). A 20-watt CFL with the same light output would cost $14 a year to power. That bulb would cost $6 to purchase initially but it’d last four years for six hours a day, so the total expenditure per year would be $15.50. That’s $38.50 less per year, which is a return on investment of 642%!
Installing a dimmer might actually save more energy than changing a bulb.
Read our Saving by Dimming blog post yet? If you dim a light fixture by 25%, you’ll save 20% in energy costs and extend the life of the bulb. Lutron executive Michael Smith also reported that “Even if you never use the dimmer you installed, it saves about four percent of the energy for that light.” Reducing energy usage also cuts down on CO2 emissions from power plants, so you can feel good about doing your part to go green if you install a dimmer. If every household installed one Lutron dimmer this year, the U.S would reduce CO2 emissions equal to that of 370,000 cars and save $230 million in electricity.