If comfort and convenience weren’t good enough reasons to consider integrating lighting and thermostat control into your home, there’s one more great reason to consider doing so now…it’s time to GO GREEN. Many of us are eating organically produced foods, using environmentally friendly cleaning products, recycling our well used cell phones, and driving hybrid vehicles all to save energy and our environment. Integrating lighting & shade control and climate control into our homes are elegant ways to incorporate energy savings with our lifestyles. This month, I’ll talk about lighting controls and next month I’ll talk more about climate control.
Go Green advocates offer 5 tips for homeowners to save energy using home lighting control and The Big Picture offers many options on how to incorporate these tips. Whether it’s in one room or your entire home, there is a convenient, money saving, option that will match your décor and compliment your existing home system.
- Dim the lights. By installing home lighting controls, dimming the lights to save energy is easy and often doesn’t affect the amount of perceived light in a room. By simply dimming the lights 25%, nearly as much energy is saved, thus saves not only the environment, but also money.
- Maximize the use of daylight. By integrating automated window coverings such as blinds and shades into your lighting control system you can maximize daylight while reducing solar heat gain. There are fabrics and colors available to compliment any décor.
- Turn off the lights when not needed. When lights are left on accidentally, the resulting energy waste adds up. Eliminate energy waste by using vacancy sensors and Master OFF controls. Vacancy sensors are devices that replace standard wall switches and monitor the space to see if people are absent or present.
- Turn on the lights only when needed. By installing astronomical clock timers the lights inside and outside of your home can be activated precisely at sunset, even as the seasons change.
- Control energy-efficient light sources. There are a variety of lighting options available today. Using the right type of lighting can help to save energy and still provide plenty of light in your room.
I’ve talked about a lot of ways to integrate lighting and shade control into your home while Going Green. If you’d like to see more about it visit Green Home Video and then give me a call at 312-315-0611 so that we can discuss what will work best for you.
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