May 21, 2019

The right lighting of an area, especially when it comes to housing, is very important for our everyday life.

By properly illuminating a space, improving its operation and reducing energy consumption. Lighting also greatly affects the aesthetics of a space and the mood of the user. In winter, when the day lasts less, the energy we consume for lighting reaches 17 to 20% of the total electricity we consume in our home. A single 60-watt bulb that works for one hour is responsible for 39 grams of CO2 and costs 0.6 cents a euro. Low-power lamps are a great solution, but there are solutions to reduce the need for artificial lighting.

The design of the building

The first very important factor is the design of our building. The poor orientation and the openings of the building directly affect our dependence on artificial lighting and power consumption in the day. The poor organization of the rooms and the placement of the furniture can also cause us to use artificial lighting during the day. A first move is to place, where possible, offices and other furniture that need light to be used, near windows to take advantage of sunlight for as many hours as possible a day. Replace incandescent lamps with energy-saving bulbs or LED bulbs. Low power lamps require up to 6 times less power to give us the same result. They are more expensive, but they have a much longer life, so, in the long run, the largest purchase cost is amortized.

Use dimmers

Using dimmers in our lights, we also reduce energy consumption. Depending on the use of space, different lighting is required and with a dimmer we can adjust the light accurately to the intensity we want it to. By reducing the lighting by 25%, it saves energy up to 20% and quadruples the lifetime of the lamp.

LED technology

Lighting technology has gone a long way in recent years with LED lamps playing a very important role. LED lamps have been in place since the early 90’s, but they were only in red and green. Today, we can have warm white light with LED lamps and take advantage of all of their advantages. Lamps have a particularly long lifetime of up to 20,000 hours, corresponding to 20 years, if we estimate that each lamp burns for about three hours a day on average. A 7.5 watt LED lamp provides the same light as a 40 watt incandescent bulb saving large amounts of energy. The big advantage of LEDs compared to low-power light bulbs is the momentary activation with full lamp performance.

Outdoors

For the outdoors of the house, the solution is one: solar fixtures. The solar lamps do not consume electricity, they do not need wires and light up just after dark. They are now available at very low prices and in many designs and colors. The energy accumulated during the day from the sun is stored in a battery that has enough capacity to power the lights for several nights, even if we have a few days without sunshine. For every 15 luminaires we replace with solar, we avoid 500 kg of carbon dioxide in one year. The only limitation is the placement of lights in places where the sun can see them.

Professional spaces

For businesses, offices and shops, WWF has issued a guide on energy saving on lighting, heating and office equipment. For more economical lighting, the driver proposes in principle the use of automatic lighting controls (photocells) that can reduce lighting costs up to 30%. Photocells are very useful and effective in warehouses, toilets and occasions that are occasionally used at times when we have no natural light. Clear glass and lighting systems can reduce costs by up to 15%. For exterior lights, the driver offers light sensors to ensure that they do not work when there is adequate natural light. Also the use of a timer for lights that do not need to be lit all night can also reduce energy consumption.

Small changes that bring enormous results

A basic step before we move on to some of the above moves is to become a habit of closing the lights when we do not need them. Incandescent incandescent lamps, in addition to summer electricity consumption, also increase the room temperature, so we consume more energy to cool the building. Small changes in the layout of our space can lead to lower energy consumption and the replacement of incandescent lamps with energy saving lamps or LEDs will reduce PPC’s bill significantly. The withdrawal of incandescent lamps throughout the European Union with 40 and 25 watts glows has already begun in 2009, with the remaining ones withdrawing in 2012. The withdrawal of incandescent lamps will save 40 million kilowatt-hours per year in the European Union , carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 15 million tonnes, and each household will save around 50 euros per year.