Last week I went to a presentation about lighting at the Ferguson showroom in Woodland Hills. In the past few years I am very happy to have found more and more clients are asking about ways to conserve energy in their home and office. Half of the energy consumption in the home and office is due to heating and cooling. As heating and cooling systems become more and more efficient lighting will dominate a larger portion of the pie. Although florescent lights are great for saving energy when picking a green product we have to look at other factors like, disposal, manufacturing, and the quality of the light. Philips Halogen Energy Savers meets the strict 2012 energy laws, although more expensive about $5 each compared to .25 cents for a standard incandescent lamp, they save 30% in energy and last 3 times longer than a standard incandescent lamp. Also by planning and layering light we can strategically design a space that incorporates the energy saving benefits of florescent lamps with the color rendering benefits of incandescent lamp.
Below: For lighting up a work surface florescent fixtures are used they are compact save energy light up the entire surface and don't produce as much heat.
However in areas were color is more important like over an island or in the breakfast room you might want to consider using an incandescent light as below
The pictures above were found on the Internet source unknown
What other ways can we save energy?
Firoozeh Khorrami
www.DesignSchematic.com
