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INDOOR LIGHTING

"If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars." – (Source: EnergyStar.gov)

What You Need to Know About Indoor Light Bulbs

ENERGY STAR Compact Florescent Light bulbs (CFLs)
  1. ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.
  2. Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime.
  3. Produce about 75 percent less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
  4. Are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors.
  5. Controls such as timers and photo cells save electricity by turning lights off when not in use. Dimmers save electricity when used to lower light levels. Be sure to select products that are compatible with CFL bulbs; not all products work with CFLs.
  6. When remodeling, look for recessed downlights, or "cans", that are rated for contact with insulation (IC rated).
  7. Take advantage of daylight by using light-colored, loose-weave curtains on your windows to allow daylight to penetrate the room while preserving privacy. Also, decorate with lighter colors that reflect daylight.

How to Choose and Where to Use CFLs

ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs provide the greatest savings in fixtures that are on for a substantial amount of time each day. At a minimum, ENERGY STAR recommends installing qualified CFLs in fixtures that are used at least 15 minutes at a time or several hours per day. The best fixtures to use qualified CFLs in are usually found in the following areas of your home:
  • Family and Living Rooms
  • Kitchen
  • Dining Room
  • Bedrooms
  • Outdoors

Indoor Lighting Resources

How to Choose & Sizes and Shapes Chart

STADIUM LIGHTING

Permanent Outdoor Stadium Lighting Tips (Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy)

  • Because outdoor lights are usually left on a long time, using CFLs in these fixtures will save a lot of energy. Most bare spiral CFLs can be used in enclosed fixtures that protect them from the weather.
  • CFLs are also available as flood lights. These models have been tested to withstand the rain and snow so they can be used in exposed fixtures. Most though, cannot be used with motion detectors.
  • Look for ENERGY STAR qualified fixtures that are designed for outdoor use and come with features like automatic daylight shut-off and motion sensors.

Stadium Lighting Resource:

Musco Sports Lighting, LLC offers Outdoor Sports Lighting for recreation and athletic facilities for a more energy conscious generation. The "Light-Structure Green" program cuts operating costs in half through improved reflector technology. The technology reduces offsite spill light by 50%.

Visit the Musco Website

DAYLIGHTING (Source: U.S. Dept of Energy)

Daylighting is the use of windows and skylights to bring sunlight into your home.

Today's highly energy-efficient windows, as well as advances in lighting design, allow efficient use of windows to reduce the need for artificial lighting during daylight hours without causing heating or cooling problems.

The best way to incorporate daylighting in your home depends on your climate and home's design. The sizes and locations of windows should be based on the cardinal directions rather than their effect on the street-side appearance of the house.

South-facing windows are most advantageous for daylighting and for moderating seasonal temperatures. They allow most winter sunlight into the home but little direct sun during the summer, especially when properly shaded.

North-facing windows are also advantageous for daylighting. They admit relatively even, natural light, producing little glare and almost no unwanted summer heat gain.

Although east- and west-facing windows provide good daylight penetration in the morning and evening, respectively, they should be limited. They may cause glare, admit a lot of heat during the summer when it is usually not wanted, and contribute little to solar heating during the winter.

If you're constructing a new house, you want to consider daylighting as part of your whole-house design — approach for building an energy-efficient home.

ENERGY EFFICIENT ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS: (Source: U.S Dept of Energy)

A great first step to find out how efficient your home, office or ballpark is, is to conduct an energy audit. An audit can assess how much energy your home consumes and evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient. An audit will show you problems that may, when corrected, save you significant amounts of money over time. During the audit you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy. Audits also determine the efficiency of your home's heating and cooling systems. An audit may also show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity. You can perform a simple energy audit yourself, or have a professional energy auditor carry out a more thorough audit.

Energy-Efficient Resources:

U.S. Dept of Energy DYI Home Energy Audit

U.S. Dept of Energy Info on Professional Home Energy Audits

BUYING CLEAN ELECTRICITY (Source: U.S. Dept of Energy)

Green Pricing

Some power companies provide an optional service, called green pricing, which allows customers to pay a small premium in exchange for electricity generated from clean, renewable ("green") energy sources. The premium covers the increased costs incurred by the power provider (i.e., electric utility) when adding renewable energy to its power generation mix.

Competitive Markets

In some parts of the country, consumers can choose not only how their electricity is generated, but also who generates it.

Just as the long-distance telephone industry was restructured, certain states have restructured their electricity industry in order to allow competition among electricity generators. In some of these states, clean power generators, who specialize in producing electricity using renewable sources, are taking advantage of the restructured market to sell clean power products to residential, commercial, and wholesale customers. Some default suppliers are also teaming with these competitive marketers to offer more green power options.

Efforts to sell clean power are aimed at consumers who will choose to pay slightly more for renewable energy products and services that reflect their environmental values. The small premium you pay offsets the additional costs power companies incur in purchasing and/or generating electricity from renewable sources.

Green Certificates

Buying green certificates allows you to contribute to the generation of clean, renewable power even if you can't buy clean power from your power provider (i.e., electric utility) or from a clean power generator on the competitive market.

An increasing number of clean power generators are now separating the power that they sell to power providers from the environmental attributes associated with that power. These environmental attributes, called green certificates (also known as "green tags," "renewable energy certificates," or "tradable renewable certificates"), are then sold to companies and individuals who want to help increase the amount of clean power entering our nation's electricity supply.

By separating the environmental attributes from the power, clean power generators are able to sell the electricity they produce to power providers at a competitive market value. The additional revenue generated by the sale of the green certificates covers the above-market costs associated with producing power made from renewable energy sources. This extra revenue also encourages the development of additional renewable energy projects.

Several organizations offer green energy or renewable energy certificates that can be purchased separate from your current electricity service.

Technologies

Biomass, concentrating solar power, geothermal, hydropower, photovoltaics (solar), wind. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/electricity/index.cfm/mytopic=10440

NO-COST WAYS TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY (Source: ASE)

  • Turn off everything not in use: lights, TVs, computers, etc.
  • Check the furnace or air conditioner (AC) filter each month, and clean or replace it as needed. Dirty filters block air flow through your heating and cooling systems, increasing your energy bill and shortening the equipment's life.
  • During hot months, keep window coverings closed on the south, east, and west windows. In winter, let the sun in.
  • Glass fireplace doors help stop heat from being lost up the chimney. Also, close the fireplace damper when not in use.
  • Activate "sleep" features on computers and office equipment that power down when not in use for a while. Turn off equipment during longer periods of non-use to cut energy costs and improve longevity.
  • When cooking, keep the lids on pots. Better yet, use a microwave oven instead.
  • Dress appropriately for the weather, and set your thermostat to the lowest possible comfortable setting. On winter nights, put an extra blanket on the bed and turn down your thermostat more.
  • In summer, use fans whenever possible instead of AC, and ventilate at night this way when practical. Using fans to supplement AC allows you to raise the thermostat temperature, using less energy. Fans cost less to use than AC.
  • About 15 percent of an average home energy bill goes to heating water. To save hot water, take five-minute showers instead of baths. Do only full loads when using the clothes washer or dishwasher.
  • Switch to cold water washing of laundry in top loading, energy-inefficient washing machines to save energy and up to $63 a year — detergents formulated for cold water get clothes just as clean.
  • Lower the temperature on your water heater. It should be set at "warm," so that a thermometer held under running water reads no more than 130 degrees.
  • Only heat or cool the rooms you need — close vents and doors of unused rooms.

LOW-COST WAYS TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY (Source: ASE)

  • Install low-flow showerheads and sink aerators to reduce hot water use.
  • Seal and weather-strip your windows and doors to ensure that you're not wasting energy on heat or air conditioning that escapes through leaks to the outdoors.
  • A water tank insulation wrap costs about $20 and helps hold the heat inside. Add pre-cut pipe insulation to exposed pipes going into your water heater-it is cheap and easy to install. If you're starting with an uninsulated tank, the energy savings should pay for the improvements in just a few months.
  • Duct tape works well on lots of things, but it often fails when used on ductwork! Use mastic (a gooey substance applied with a paintbrush) to seal all exposed ductwork joints in areas such as the attic, crawlspace, or basement. Insulate ducts to improve your heating system's efficiency and your own comfort.
  • Storm windows can reduce heat lost by single-paned windows by 25-50 percent during the winter. As an alternative, you can improve your windows temporarily with plastic sheeting installed on the inside.
  • When buying new products, look for the ENERGY STAR® label, found on more than 40 different products such as TVs, furnaces, cell phones, refrigerators, air conditioners and more.
  • Incandescent light bulbs are outdated; 95 percent of the energy used goes to heating the bulb, adding unwanted heat to your home in the summer. Replace your five most used light bulbs with ENERGY STAR compact fluorescent bulbs to save $60 each year in energy costs. These light bulbs use two-thirds less energy and last up to 10 times longer. Use dimmers, timers, and motion detectors on indoor and outdoor lighting.
  • Consider safer, more efficient ENERGY STAR torchiere lamps rather than halogen torchieres, which can cause fires. Halogen bulbs are expensive to use.

ENERGY EFFICIENT EQUIPMENT TIPS (Source: NFIB unless otherwise noted)

Below are some steps anyone can take to help increase their energy efficiency around the home, office or ballpark. Go Bio Diesel with turf equipment (Source: Toro)
  • Cleaner burning fuel that is biodegradable and non-toxic
  • Releases less carbon dioxide, unburned hydrocarbons and particulate matter (all major contributors to gas emissions)

Replace old appliances with "energy stars"

When your old appliances die out, replace them with products that have "energy star" ratings (issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy). If you upgrade your lighting system, use compact fluorescent lights and high-efficiency bulbs. Exit signs are now available in more energy efficient LED lighting. See www.energystar.gov for more information.

Buy a Green Fleet

If you need a new company car (or truck) buy a hybrid vehicle. More models are becoming available to consumers every year and the incentives to buy these vehicles are increasing; the IRS has dozens of hybrid vehicles that qualify for a tax credit of up to $3,400. Visit www.hybridcar.com. You could also think outside the gas tank and give your own incentives to employees for taking public transportation or carpooling to work.