Eco Friendly Innovations You Should Be Incorporating Into Your Home Lighting Design
More than 17 percent of the energy consumed in Canada is used to run our homes. Buying an energy-efficient home or making energy-saving renovations can offer big savings, both in terms of annual ‘running costs’ and in an increasing number of instances, mortgage credits as well. That means that for many would be home buyers ‘green features’ are being added to their lists of ‘wants’ when viewing homes for sale.
Home lighting is one area in which making ‘green upgrades’ is a lot easier – and cheaper – than you might imagine and if they can be used as a selling point (which they can) then it only makes sense to explore some of those options when you are readying your home for sale. With all of this in mind, here are a few eco friendly products and lighting ideas you might want to consider instead:
Natural Light
It really seems rather obvious to suggest that natural light is the best way to illuminate any room in terms of eco friendliness and overall running costs, but actually a great many homeowners do not even try to take advantage of the attractive – and free natural light that could be allowed to flood into their homes every day.
Skylights – and the less expensive and easier to install sun tubes – are a beautiful way to light up even a small, dark room without the need for lots of extra electric light fittings.
They also offer a very big extra advantage in that the use of skylights and sun tubes can really have a dramatic and very positive effect on the overall aesthetic appeal of the space, something else that can only be beneficial when you are trying to sell your home.
Florescent Lighting
Because it seems like a very old fashioned idea, you may be very surprised by just how eco friendly and energy efficient florescent lighting actually is.
One reason that many people shy away from florescent lighting for their homes however is that is rarely ever touted as a very attractive lighting option. This is because when most people think of it they envisage the long, bare tubes that used to be so popular. These days however there are some seriously attractive options available that can actually enhance the look of a space, especially if it is a rather contemporary decor scheme. They all however still use less electricity and last at least ten times longer than a standard bulb so it is an option well worth considering.
LED Lighting
There was certainly a time when LED lighting was considered to be nothing more than a novelty for geek types, but there have been some major advances in the technology that have made LED lighting far more attractive, far brighter and much more of a viable alternative for all kinds of home lighting. In terms of usage, these days some LED bulbs are designed to last for a decade or even longer and they are much more economical to use than many other alternatives.
Solar Lighting
Although solar lighting technology has also improved in leaps and bounds it may still not be a great choice for indoor lighting, but if you make use of outdoor lighting around your home, which most of us do, it is hard to find an excuse for using traditional artificial electric lighting methods over solar lighting outdoors at all anymore, unless you need baseball stadium level lighting for some strange reason. In terms of decor there are so many beautiful choices out there that it is also hard to imagine that you could not find just what you are looking for in solar outdoor lighting either.