We may as well admit it. Of all the challenges on this website, remembering to turn off the lights whenever we leave a room is the one habit most of us need to practice more often.
What You Should Know
- Lighting accounts for about 20% of all electricity used in America (5% residential, 15% commercial), and 10% of all emissions of CO2.
- Opening the curtains during the day will save lighting energy. Direct sunlight is 100 times brighter than the light from a strong reading lamp.
- A white wall reflects 80% of the light that hits it, a black one reflects just 10%. So, by choosing light paint colors for your walls, the more light the walls will reflect and the greater the illumination of the room.
Easy Things You Can Do
Turn off the lights every time you leave a room. Yes, fluorescent bulbs too: It's a myth that it takes more energy to turn a light back on than it does to leave on. Just turn it off, every time!
Use only as much wattage as you need. Do you really need every lamp in the room to be on for the task you're performing? Are you using more wattage than the space really needs? Try lower wattage bulbs, and fewer lights on at once to find out what "bright enough" really means for you.
Dust the bulbs occasionally to allow the full light to shine through.
Install light-timer plugs for lamps that are used infrequently, such as in the garage or basement. That way, you turn them on the timer and they go off automatically when the time has elapsed.
Install energy-saving dimmer switches wherever you need bright light only occasionally.
Source: 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save the Earth, PG&E.