About 90 percent of the power used by a traditional light bulb creates heat, not visible light. That’s why, as a kid, I could make Teddy his favorite brownies in my Easy Bake Oven.
These days though I want my bedroom to be lit for reading, not heating, so I banned incandescent light bulbs. Instead, we used warm, inviting compact fluorescent light fixtures in our green remodeling project.
Wait – Warm Inviting fluorescent lights?!
True. Most folks are used to the unflattering office-look and don’t realize that fluorescent light can look just like a traditional home lighting. Manufacturers now offer Energy-Star fluorescent versions for virtually every standard kind of home lighting fixture.
Compact fluorescent lights are the most affordable energy efficient choice at home today. LED lighting is certainly very efficient, but right now, not easily affordable.
Not long ago compact fluorescent lights couldn’t be dimmed, but not anymore.
Before we remodeled, our bedside lights did a better job illuminating my alarm clock than my book. Now we use recessed compact fluorescent overhead lights on a dimmer. Each fixture contains an electronic dimmable ballast and a pin-style compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb.
No waiting for warm up, just light when you want it. We love it.
Use less electricity at home by switching out the whole fixture to an Energy Star dimmable recessed light. Many know less electricity equals lower greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global climate change. After all, about 20 percent of your home electric bill probably comes from lights.
Each fixture has a 26 watt CFL bulb equal to a traditional 100 watt bulb and will last 12,000 hours compared to the typical 1500 hours. The secret to getting a traditional warm look is to buy a bulb with a 2700K color temperature.
Bluish daylight bulbs are in the 5000K to 7000K range.
These days, we can mix and match our bedroom lighting as needed. The side light fixtures follow our design motif, but are rarely used. Within easy reach, we located the dimmer switch to the right of the bed. We use the overhead lights on high for reading, and dimmed low for, well, that’s for us to know…
Got any questions?
