Lower My Electric Bill – Save Money and Electricity on Lighting
Lighting is your home’s forth biggest energy consumer. How can I lower my electric bill, you wonder?
With these simple yet effective household energy saving tips on home’s Lighting you can save energy and cut your utility bill.
The Incandescent light bulb is an incredibly inefficient device. Most of the electric energy it consumes goes to generating heat, lots of heat, with just a fraction of it producing actual light, which is why we use it in the first place.
As it turns out, you have numerous small heaters scattered all over your home, heating it up 24 hours a day, 7 day a week year round.
Even in summer, when you are struggling to cool down your home – you still
got those heaters working against you.
This makes home’s Lighting an excellent candidate for saving money, because each dollar saved on Lighting will double itself by saving you another dollar on Air-Conditioning!
Here’s how to lower my electric bill and save money on home’s Lighting:
Use CFL (PL) Bulbs Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs use 75% less electricity than regular (incandescent) light bulbs does. They also lust much longer, up to 10 times more than a regular bulb.
Although they cost more initially, the big saving in your utility bills make it a good investment.
As a side effect, you are also saving on A/C, since incandescent bulbs produce a lot of heat.
My ‘Usage Policy’ is to change all the bulbs, except those which I use for a less then a minute or so, such as those in my cabinets, pantry etc. It is economical to replace any light bulb if it burns
more than half an hour a day.
However – be carful not to fall into the pit of “Why turn it off? It costs nothing anyway” as some people do. Even a C.F.L, burning 24/7 will consume considerable amount of electricity, and you end up wasting money while thinking you are saving it!
Amazon and eBay
are good sources for CFL Bulbs with a huge online selection.
Use LED BulbsEven better than Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs, LED bulbs use a fraction of electricity – up to 98% less than a regular light bulb does!
They cost more than CFLs, but produce worse lights than CFLs.
My ‘Usage Policy’ is to use them only in places where I need constant light, such as my basement, halls etc.
LED Bulbs & various LED Lighting fixtures are available on Amazon & eBay
.
Tungsten-Halogen Bulbs As mentioned above, CFLs and LEDs should be your preference. If, however you need to use an incandescent light bulb for some reason,
Tungsten-Halogen uses 15% less electricity than a regular incandescent light bulb does.
Both Amazon and eBay
offer large selection of Halogen Bulbs.
Turn off the lights! Yes – it is that simple. Do a one minute walk-through before you leave the house and turn off all the lights.
Even if you’re using CFL (PL) lights, this short walk-through is the equivalent of earning $50 an hour.
When you return, your house will also be cooler, so more savings on air-conditioning when you come
back.
You should do the same before sitting down to watch TV and turn off all unnecessary lighting.
After a short period of forcing myself to perform this drill it has become a second nature to me, and I was able to lower my electric bill considerably.
Use Larger Bulbs Prefer using one large bulb instead of two smaller ones. For example, one 100W light bulb produces more light than two 60W bulbs, and uses less electricity.
Use Motions Detectors for Outside Lighting You don’t need to keep the garage lights on all night just for 5 minutes you really need them. Use lights with motion detectors, and save a lot of energy.
Amazon has a wide selection
of Motion Detector Lighting to choose from, and so does eBay
.
Use Timers, Light Sensors or Sensor Lights For the rest of your outdoor Lighting, use a timing device, or even better – light sensors (photoelectric controls) to make sure these lights don’t stay on when the sun is out.
For security lights, such as garage or driveway lights, use sensor lights which detect motion and light up only when needed.
Next in line comes Water Heating, eating up 12 cents out of each dollar spent on electricity. Here are some electricity saving tips that will Save Energy and Save Money on Hot Water.