Switch light bulbs from incandescent to LED

Why

Incandescent lighting is very inefficient, plus LED lighting lasts much longer, so you don’t have to replace bulbs nearly as often.

LED lights use approximately 1/6 the energy of incandescent lights and last 15-40 times as long as incandescent. Lighting accounts for nearly 20% of home electricity use. If an incandescent light is on only 3 hours/day, you can save $9/year for each bulb you upgrade to LED.

EC Lights Out (1)

How

To ensure good quality make sure you buy ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs.  ENERGY STAR requires that the bulbs meet efficiency standards, have good quality colors, keep their brightness over time, and start quickly.

If you buy LED light fixtures with integrated bulbs, look for fixtures that are maintainable. That way, if one component fails, you can replace the part, instead of the whole fixture.

LED lighting is about a third more efficient than Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL). If you have CFL that run all the time, you will save about $6/year for each CFL that you upgrade to LED. ENERGY STAR qualified LEDs are available for about $4/bulb, giving an 8 month payback.

All fluorescent bulbs contain mercury.  When it is time to throw out CFL or other fluorescent lighting, be sure to dispose of them properly.  Check out “Where do I Recycle My…” for Saskatchewan recycling locations.

When you buy lighting, consider what color of light you want. This is referred to as Color Temperature. Warm or soft white (~2700K) has a yellowish tint, daylight (~5000K) has a bluish tint, and cool or bright white (~3000-4000K) is in between. These colors will affect how your room looks as shown below.

Cool or bright white gives good visual acuity, and is well suited to an office, kitchen, or any area where detail work is happening. Warm or soft white gives a cozier feel, and is well suited to a living room or bedroom.