Light pollution and energy bills are buzz words that can darken the brightest incandescent desires. However, a look at the newest lighting solutions may just brighten up your day, and night.
Our house is fighting two battles: one against white light (which is anathema to me, but apparently much loved by my grandfather, in some disillusioned memory of my grandmother’s likes); and the other against incandescent bulbs. The second is a way easier battle – once you’ve crossed the first bridge. When God said ‘Let there be light,’ did he mean it to come with the fine print ‘…and turn off when not in use’? Or, perhaps He meant ‘Let there be CFL light.’ Or, LEDs. Or, light sensors. And, perhaps, he also added ‘… and don’t keep your power adapters plugged in.’
In other words, I am beginning to feel, more and more, that light is truly a luxury commodity.
I am certain God did not expect us to remain holed up in badly planned homes and offices within energy-guzzling high rise apartments, where the only source of light would be artificial. Our conventional lives thrive on artificial light. Urban skylines suffer from light pollution, and studies increasingly point to the hazards of too much artificial lighting for our bodies.
Harvest Light, Watch it Grow
What God (and no, I am not being irreverent here) would probably endorse – and be brand manager of – is Daylight Harvesting. This brilliant way to save electricity leverages all the available natural light for greater energy-efficiency and aesthetic value. First, get a green architect who understands how to maximize natural light, and how to position your house according to those designs. The direction of the sun, and which way your home faces, is very important for daylight harvesting. Bedrooms do not need natural light during the day, making a northern exposure good. However, for rooms you spend a lot of time in – such as the kitchen, family room, or living room – facing south or west will provide plenty of natural ambient light.
Daylight must be properly integrated with the electric lighting system for its energy-saving potential to be realized. Use lighting controls that switch or dim the lights, either manually or automatically, in response to available daylight. Installing this dimming system is a savvy energy-saving idea. It might be expensive initially; but, in the long run, it saves on electricity bills. Schedule a sophisticated lighting plan for every fixture in the house with a dimming capability. Lamps can be scheduled to turn on both at specific times and at specific power levels as well.
Ice Cream Swirl Future
A study by McKinsey Global Institute showed that worldwide energy consumption could be cut by more than half over the next 15 years through more aggressive energy-efficiency efforts by homes, offices, and industries. Energy saving, the report said, could be achieved through a long list of suggested steps, the main being the adoption of energy saving lights.
Conventional incandescent bulbs turn only around five to ten percent of consumed energy into light, while the rest (95%) goes out as heat. In summer, it is this heat that causes you to crank up the air conditioner, leading to more artificiality. Incandescent bulbs come at higher prices, have shorter life spans, and are fire hazards – because of how fast they heat up and get onto the wrong side of flammable materials. Thus, the significant element is the filament – or the lack thereof, in energy saving bulbs. Ravindra Aggarwal, MD Marketing, Reiz Lighting, says chemical processes and diodes make CFL and LED bulbs energy efficient. This results ‘not only in them having a long life, but in the long run, they are a cheaper option.’
Amongst energy saving lights, swirly ice cream bulbs hold the future in their softy shaped cone. The Compact Fluorescent Light, commonly called CFL, works through a chemical reaction, as opposed to the filament which facilitates the process of lighting in an incandescent bulb. The CFL generates more light and less heat, and consumes lesser energy than a bulb. Ravindra Aggarwal throws some numbers around: ‘a CFL, with its 10,000 working hours and an output of 70 lumens per watt, is certainly more cost effective and energy saving than regular light bulb.’
It has been noted that, for a given light output, CFLs use between one-fifth and one-quarter of the power used by an equivalent incandescent light bulb, making them lighter on the pockets. A survey carried out by the US Department of Energy, showed that lighting accounted for approximately 9 percent of household electricity usage in the United States of America in 2001. The widespread use of CFLs could make for a total energy saving of about 7 precent from household usage alone. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
Swirl bulbs don’t merely work; they pay for themselves. They use very little power when compared with old reliable bulbs: a Rs. 120 swirl pays for itself in lower electricity bills in about five months. Screw one in, turn it on, and it will not just light up your living room, but also drop rupees in your pocket. The advantage piles up in a way that almost makes one feel giddy. Compact fluorescents, even in heavy use, last 5/ 7, even 10 years. Install one on your thirtieth birthday; it may be around to help illuminate your fortieth!
LED as Light’s Leaders
It gets even better! One step ahead of CFLs are the LEDs. In Light Emmiting Diodes, the light output of individual diodes is smaller in comparison to both CFLs and incandescent bulbs. Thus, multiple diodes are used for one bulb. These unsung heroes of the electronic world do dozens of different jobs, and are found in all kinds of devices: they are the numbers on digital clocks; they transmit information from remote controls; they light up watches; and they even tell you when your appliances are turned on.
Post the initial cost – which is higher than other bulbs – LEDs last 8 times longer than swirls, and 35 times longer than incandescent bulbs. They use only 5 to 6 watts of energy, and don’t get hot. They also do not have any of the harmful mercury that CFL’s have, and for which they have come under fire.
According to a recent report in The Hindustan Times, Delhi is leading the nation in the drive to save power through its use of energy efficient lighting. Of the 255 million compact florescent lamps (CFLs) sold throughout the country last year, Delhi alone bought 45.9 million – a whopping 18 per cent –the highest for any city. In Delhi, power distributors like BSES have been offering CFLs at subsidised rates to its 25 lakh customers for the last two years.
After CFL-powered drives, the capital is now shifting attention to LEDs. ‘The government is thinking of offering subsidy to LED products as they are more energy efficient than CFLs. But their exorbitant cost is a problem. Its cost should be lowered to make it more acceptable to people,’ says Dharmendra Kumar, Delhi Environment Secretary.
Along with this, CFL manufacturers have also been asked to place bins across the city to collect fused lamps so that their mercury content does not get dumped in the open, or in the municipal solid waste stream. With Delhi in CFL overdrive (plus other energy-efficient technologies), the city saved 600 MW of power on the day of Earth Hour 2009, when thousands of households switched off their non-essential lights for an hour.
With such immense innovations in the field of light, your home can be aesthetically lit as bright or as dim as you want, and you can still be saving the Earth.
Courtesy: Greenlife Magazine
