Saving enegy is good for your pocket and good for the environment. Here's some tips to help you save energy with lighting.
In these days of global warming, soaring energy costs and more recently the credit crunch it has become even more important to save energy and money.So how can lighting save you money?
With all the
furore surrounding the good old fashioned incandescant lamp and the
promotion of compact fluorescent sources you would think there was no
other way of saving energy.
- The manufaturing process uses considerably more energy and materials than does the standard GLS lamp.
- They are not suitable in areas subject to frequent switching - a
lavatory for instance - they are designed with a duty cycle, that is to
say they should be on for a specific period of time before they are
switched off. Frequent switching drastically reduces their life span
- They are not always a direct replacement for their incandesant counterpart.
- They contain hazardous material and have to be disposed of at a site capable of handling them.
- The life of the lamp is based on lumen depreciation. That is to say how much the light output reduces over time. A 20% reduction is the normal figure for the life of flourescent lamps. The problem is that whilst they are failing they still produce light and still use the same amount of energy. It could be your 20W CFL lamp is still using 20 watts but giving you 15, 10 or even less watts of light.
- They are not always the prettiest of lamps especially after you paid so much for that beatiful light fitting.
The new kid on the block is based around light emmiting diodes (LED) these are actually a semi-conducter as found in your computer. LEDs have been around for years - TV sets, Hi Fi and the microwave all use LEDs. These tended to be red, green or ambers. In the past decade blue LEDs have been invented and this has led to white sources. The beauty of the LED is that they are small, very small so it is possible to mimic the shape of existing lamp styles. You will not find a MR16 - low voltage halogen such as used in down lighters - CFL replacement lamp but , there are many LED versions to choose from.! Lamp life is another major factor. Incandesant lamps have a life of 2000 hours (much less when used in downlights and surrounded by insulation) CFL has a life of 10,000 - 15,000 the same as high intensity discharge. LED sources have lives of 30,000 hours and some as high as 50,000. To put that into perspective there are 8742 hours in a year!
Now what about standard flourescent tubes, they do not use a great deal of energy? That's true and there are energy savings to be made there. The old fashioned T12 38mm diameter tubes were replace with T8 25mm diameter tubes. There was energy saving as a 5' 65W tube became a 58W tube. The very latest innovation is T5 16mm diameter tube that uses a high frequency ballast as opposed to the old fashioned ballast (copper wire wound around a core to limit the energy that pases to the lamp) and produces even greater energy savings. A five foot T5 fitting now produces 49 watts as opposed to 58 watts in T8 format and considerably extends lamp life. It's also possible to get an 80 watt version.
Recently daylight balanced lamps have come down in price as manufacturing processes have improved. Daylight balanced sources are an ideal way of getting something for nothing as there is more energy in the blue end of the lighting spectrum. Additionally they have other benifits such as decreasing the levels of Melatonin and increasing Seratonin. Melatonin increases fatigue and Seratonin wakes you up. It's the whole Seasonal Affective Disorder thing and daylight light sources help reduce the effects of SAD.
There you have a quick guide as to how lighting can save you energy. If you would like to have an enegy audit carried or if you keen to improve energy use or if you want to buy any of the products mentioned get in touch through the contact page.
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