With rising energy costs and most of Europe caught deeply in the grips of an economic crisis, one of the easiest ways to decrease your costs is to use energy efficient lighting in the home and workplace.

Currently, lighting accounts for up to 10% of a single households energy consumption, therefore, utilising a more efficient form of lighting is a quick and effective way of decreasing your electricity bill.

Compact fluorescent (CFL) lights are a cost effective energy decreasing solution and certainly are far more efficient than incandescent and halogen lights, however, LED lighting is currently the most efficient form of lighting on the market today.

LED lighting is a little more expensive but they can save you a lot more money in the long term!

Just by replacing an incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent (CFL) equivalent in terms of light output, 70% less energy is utilised.

By replacing an incandescent bulb with a LED equivalent an amazing 80-90% less energy is used!

Many households and businesses also use halogen spot lights which use a lot of energy (up to 50W), produce a great amount of heat and have a limited lifetime.

Now LED solutions of up to 6W are widely available to replace these without sacrificing light output whilst greatly reducing the amount of energy utilised.

LED Spot lights also have a much longer lifetime of around 50,000 hours on average.

It doesn’t matter where you live, whether it be a house, flat or bungalow, just by updating your existing lighting to an energy efficient solution can save you money instantly!

There is now a brand new LED solution that is ideal for offices and workplaces.

It’s called the LED Panel Light and it is a 60cm x 60cm or 60cm x 120cm panel which is backlit by an array of LEDs.

These panels will replace existing fluorescent tubes and not only save energy but greatly improve the overall ambience in the workplace thanks to a glare free uniform light output.

One other reason for you to change your household and business lighting to energy efficient alternatives is that since 1 September 2009, household lamps produced for the EU market need to fulfill minimum energy requirements.

Conventional incandescent and halogen bulbs which cannot meet these requirements will be gradually phased out from the EU market until late 2012.

Of course, the easiest and cheapest way to decrease your lighting bill is simply to turn your lights off whenever they are not being used!

BY by GAHZLY

#Energy #Saving #Lighting #Home #Business