(Newswire.net — April 23, 2020) –When we are not being strategic with our energy consumption, the environment is not the only one who’s stressed. If you are not practicing energy conservation at home, you will also end up increasing your energy bill. In turn, your budget for other essentials will be used, and you won’t be able to save money for different needs.
So how can a household be energy-efficient without sacrificing comfort and safety? For example, one of the utilities that are non-negotiable is the lighting system. During night time, we need lights to navigate through places safely.
And for homes, adding a lighting system outdoors also makes the area feel more secure and less inviting for malicious people. But because lights use electricity, is there a way for homeowners to maintain this utility while also being energy-efficient?
Get Enlightened
The short answer to that question is yes, and it simply begins by finding the right light for your outdoors. Nowadays, it’s easy for us to search the market for the best low voltage landscape lighting. These fixtures still effectively illuminate your space, even if they’re using a voltage lower than your mainline.
They also vary in types, and you can choose which landscape light is suitable for your outdoors. For example, you might want to add path lights and step lights around your yard, so it’s safer to walk through. On the other hand, some homeowners also use spotlights as uplights in the walls and trees. This way, they can keep an area lit during nighttime and deter robbers.
You might as well use a low voltage lighting for these uses because they’re safe and easy to install from not posing an electrocution risk. You can even leave them on throughout the night because they work with a transformer that will regulate their voltage.
You can even cut the cost of your electricity bill even more by setting their transformer with a timer. This way, the lights will only work at a certain time duration. Some landscape lighting systems even use a transformer with a photocell, which will only turn the lights on during dusk to dawn. It’s an effortless and foolproof way to conserve electricity.
Let LEDs Lead You
Another strategy that you can practice is using LED bulbs over other types of bulbs for your landscape lighting. The reason why LEDs are better than other bulbs, such as incandescent or halogen, is because they consume up to 75% less energy by working as semiconductors. They also dissipate heat more efficiently, and their overall build (e.g., lack of filament) allows them to serve you longer before needing replacement from damages.
You might even notice that the LED lights in the market are more diverse. They vary in forms, sizes, and color temperatures for different uses. In fact, manufacturers have stepped it up a bit and start offering kits.
The best LED landscape lighting kit already has the wires, connectors, and the adapter or transformer that you’ll need for an easy installation. This way, you’re not only saving money by cutting the cost of your electricity bill. You are also saving by not paying for an electrician to install the lights for you.
Watts the Advantage
Besides using a low voltage LED landscape lighting kit, you can cull the options in the market more by prioritizing low wattage lights. The wattage of the lights matters in energy conservation because they are the measurement of how much electricity your lights will use.
Now, you might have your eyebrow raised with this fact. After all, isn’t the higher the wattage of the bulb, the brighter it will be? Thus, using a low wattage bulb will give you insufficient illumination. However, it’s time that we debug this myth because that assumption is incorrect.
Choosing a low wattage lighting system doesn’t mean that you’ll be sacrificing their brightness. If you’re using a low voltage and low wattage LED bulb, you will still get good brightness but with lower electricity consumption. This means that a 42-watt halogen bulb and a 10-watt LED bulb produces the same amount of brightness even if the latter consumes lower electricity. And the reason behind this is because they have an equal number of lumens.
An energy-efficient lighting system has a high number of lumens, while also working at a low wattage. It will be bright, but it doesn’t require a high amount of energy to do so. So next time that you’re shopping, choose the low wattage lights. And then, select the appropriate number of lumens for your desired brightness.
Bonus Tips
It’s not enough to buy the appropriate lighting system to be energy-efficient. Homeowners should also practice these habits for a more energy-efficient way of lighting their outdoors.
- Place your lights strategically. Sometimes, one floodlight is enough to give wide coverage. Even if you’re using low wattage LED lights, you can still save more by only using the necessary number of fixtures in an area.
- If you’re putting fixtures in a large space, opt to have multiple switches for each part of the area. This way, you have more control in the lighting, and you can just simply turn off the lights in one area when they’re not needed.
- A foolproof way to be more energy-efficient when it comes to lighting is by simply turning off the lights when you’re not using them. We often overlook this practice because we think we’re using energy-efficient bulbs anyway. However, you can save more energy and lengthen the lifespan of your lights when you turn them off when they’re not in use.
- Take advantage of timers, photocells, and smart technology. You don’t need to manually check your lights when you use a timer. And having your lights turn off after a specific number of hours will also mean lower energy consumption.
You can also use transformers with a photocell that will only use the lights from dusk until dawn. On the other hand, motion detectors will operate your lights only when they detect movement. For safety reasons, you can deter malicious people without needing to turn your lights on for an extended period.
- Lastly, keeping your lighting fixtures clean will also help you be more energy-efficient. This is because dirtier bulbs are less efficient in illumination. The dirt and foreign materials in them obstruct the light that they emit. In turn, dirty bulbs make it seem like they’re not as bright.