Lighting choices for conserving energy

Artificial lighting is a necessity in a modern home, unless you're happy to live by candlelight. Lighting requirements also increase during the winter as the days get shorter.

On average, lighting accounts for 10% of a household's energy consumption. You can improve on this by taking one or more of the following steps:

• Design your home to take maximum advantage of natural light when it is available.
  
  
  • Install roof lights or skylights in areas where it's not possible to include a window, such as internal hallways and corridors.
  
  
  • Include large windows on north facing aspects (for Southern hemisphere) to take advantage of daylight hours. Keep in mind that double glazing should be used where possible to minimise heat loss through the window system.
  
  
• Using lighter colours for interior surfaces reduces the need to use artificial lighting


• Think about the design and placement of lighting and switches so you only turn on the lights you need, and it's easy to switch off lights that aren't required. Also ensure each lighting installation has it's own switch so you only switch on the lights you actually need.


• Install energy saving light bulbs. These use approximately 1/7th what a standard light bulb does and they also last longer.


• Consider installing delay timers, movement sensors and dimmers to reduce the amount of energy used from lighting. Delay timers can be set to switch off after a certain amount of time. These are perfect for rooms that are only used for a short period of time such as store rooms and toilets, however they can cause a safety issue if the timer is set too short. Movement sensors are great for entrance ways and can also provide a security element.