In this series, we’re helping you save energy at your homes and businesses, room by room.
Your bedroom can be many things. A space to kick back after a long day. A place to romance your sweetie. Maybe it doubles as an office, or maybe it’s just the only personal space you have in this whole wide world.
Whatever your bedroom, boudoir, or inner sanctum may function as, there’s one thing it should never be: a needless energy-sucker.
Lighting is an important part of any bedroom. It adds style, ambiance, and functionality, but having great lighting in the bedroom doesn’t have to use up a ton of power.
We’re pulling out all the stops to give you the best tips to use in the bedroom – for energy-efficient lighting, that is!
1. Take a survey of all your light fixtures – table lamps, floor lamps, track lights, and any ceiling fans, chandeliers, or pendant lights. How many of these use incandescent light bulbs? If the answer is greater than zero, we’ve identified the first way you can cut down your energy consumption in the bedroom: Swap out all your incandescent household, chandelier, and reflector light bulbs for LEDs or CFLs.
Just think, the average 60-watt incandescent produces about 800 lumens. A CFL only uses 15 watts to produce that same amount, and an LED only requires 12 watts. These efficient light bulbs will also help you save your own energy, as well as the energy you pay for. Most incandescent light bulbs last less than a year, but CFLs can last up to 9 years, and you can use a good LED for up to 23!
2. Now shift your attention to the lighting controls in your bedroom. Any basic on/off light switches staring back at you? We’ve just found another way you can save. Those basic light switches are like cassette tapes compared to today’s iPod. When you replace those old, basic switches with dimmers, you’ll save energy, and extend the life of your light bulb.
When you dim a light bulb by 10%, you’ll use 10% less energy to power that light bulb, and it will last twice as long. If you dim a light bulb by 50%, you’ll cut your energy use by 40% and your light bulb will last almost 20 times as long. Dimmers aren’t limited to wall switches either. You can find special controls (like this one) for your wall, table, and desk lamps to dim them individually. Just make sure that if you’re using the dimmers with CFLs and LEDs, they’re compatible, otherwise they could malfunction.
3. Are any night lights in your presence? While these tiny fixtures might be an afterthought for many, older, incandescent night lights can use up quite a bit of energy, especially when compared to new LED models. Take this little beauty for instance:
Using only 0.3 watts of power, it won’t cost you more than $0.20 to operate each year. That’s 90% less than the traditional incandescent. Not to mention it has a 100,000-hour rated life!
4. What other light fixtures do you use? Wall-mounted reading lights? Shelf lights? Display lights? You can save even more energy by upgrading these fixtures to LED or fluorescent.
Did you know that if you use incandescent lights in your recessed or cove lighting, they can actually make a room significantly warmer? This can jack up your A/C bill if you’re not careful. LED and fluorescent lights generate much less heat – yet another reason to make the switch!
To learn more, check out our bedroom lighting page here.
Who has made some energy-efficient changes to a bedroom as of late? We wanna hear about them! Please comment below, or share photos on our Facebook Wall!
Stay tuned for more energy-saving tips!
Some great suggestions! I like that you touched on the fact that incandescent bulbs actually generate some heat too! The only thing I would add to this is to be mindful of the color of the light you choose. Many energy efficient bulbs are very “bluish”, which is generally pretty awful in a bedroom. Check the labels for Light Appearance/Color Temperature. I recently did some research into how to evaluate light bulb packaging to find the light that is right for the space (http://www.everblue.edu/blog/evaluating-energy-efficient-light-bulbs).
Thanks, Amy! That’s a good point. We recommend using lights with a color temperature of 3,200K or below for bedroom lighting. Luckily, many energy-efficient light bulbs are now made to fit these standards.