Green Lighting Solutions
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Replacing Light Bulbs Constantly?
I like many others would buy my light bulbs based on convenience and price. It wasn’t until I was frustrated by inefficient lighting and continually replacing the “cheap bulbs that I started digging a little deeper. Many of the areas where we live in Florida have multiple power surges that play havoc with our electronics and yes light bulbs. There are some steps that can be taken to stop continually replacing the bulbs if you are in one of these areas you go to a real lighting store and buy bulbs that are rated for 130 Volts instead of 120 that you get at Home Depot or the grocery store. These take the fluctuations that come from our grid better than the standard ones. Many of the cheaper light fixtures, that are installed by contractors tend to blow bulbs, like my concealed high hats were.
Another quick tip is if you have a dimmer switch do not use energy saving Compact Florescent, they will not last long. There are dimmable CFL’s but I don’t recommend them. CFL are Florescent and take a great deal of energy to light up therefore you should not use them in motion lighting either.
I have had many customers, who wanted us to replace a fixture that had motion sensors because they wouldn’t work. Instead of replacing the fixture which was still good, I would replace the bulb with a LED bulb. The difference between how long the LED was guaranteed for over the CFL was a 5 year warranty. Also they use 15% of the electricity that a Halogen would use, with out generating the heat. The CFL was only rated to last a year at $10 the LED was $39 and more energy efficient. As you can see from the heat generated by Halogens the upgrade to LED’s, makes sense immediately.
Energy Efficient lighting
When we start doing some math on energy saving light fixtures and bulbs. Even the ones made for them are inadequate. as of this writing. Lighting technology is improving daily and there are great ones out there, that are now much cheaper to purchase. If you did the math above you saw that LED lighting is now approaching the ‘cost effective threshold’ this means that when we are value engineering the lighting we now take serious look at LED lighting. LED put out nice bright white light without generating heat like the Halogens do and last longer making up the difference in the upfront cost.
There are free lighting calculators that you can go online and use that take into account; the amount of time you run your lights, how many Lumen you need to generate, etc. According to the US Department of Energy (DOE) 25 % of a buildings energy is used by lighting. This is an area that you can chip away at a little at a time until it’s all done, without breaking the bank. Every one should take into account the heat generated by their lighting. The DOE accounts for 42% of a commercial buildings cooling bill comes from the lighting.
Many of the old florescent fixtures can be re-lamped with electronic ballasts and new T8 with a lower watt that will produce the same lighting with less lamps.
When it comes to energy efficiency remember the most efficient one is the one that’s turned off. Installing timers and occupancy sensors are many times the way to great savings. Even Smart homes may offer a good way to save energy.
h2. Going Green in Florida Benefits and Strategy
Learn going green in Florida benefits and strategy to recycle for a profit while keeping our landfills from overflowing, and cut down on unneeded expenses. Learn how to tap into the newest movement of going green that has a positive effect and benefits on your day to day life, and whose legacy we will leave to our future generations.
Market to business owners of other companies interested in working with an environmentally friendly Florida company like yours.
Heat barriers
One thing that help is a correctly installed Radiant Heat Barrier. Many of the Florida homes never had one installed and many that are installed are done so incorrectly. A radiant heat barrier may shave up to 15% off of your cooling costs.
Installing should be done with reflective side down and maintaining an air space, leading the heat up to the roof vents. This should be combined with proper insulation and HVAC system, to produce desired results. Remember if you want everything to work together it should be designed by someone with knowledge of all the systems not just one trade. The desired result is to save money on your electric bill.
h2. Fuel Efficient Vehicles Article
One of the first benefits we will share for going green is about fleet management which is essentially the same as fuel efficiency. Find out how to make Florida work vehicles squeeze the most mileage out of your older vehicles and which newer ones will perform better when it’s time to upgrade. Read the benefits in our Fuel Efficient Vehicles article here…