Low Energy Lighting Facts
- 20% of your electricity bill is to pay for lighting - on average the UK home has 25 lightbulbs which are used for an average of 1 hour a day
- Lighting generates 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the UK each year
- Low energy light bulbs use about a quarter of the electricity of traditional incandescent bulbs. So you can easily cut your electricity bill by between 10 and 15% by switching to low energy bulbs.
Low Energy Lighting Myths Busted
- They're too expensive....Actually the opposite is true: they will save you a small fortune. A low energy bulb costs you a more than a normal one to buy but it lasts on average 12 times longer than a normal bulb, so you'll save money over its lifetime, just on the costs of the bulbs. Plus after you've installed each bulb you will save up to £9 each year in electricity costs. Over its lifetime the bulb will save you £50-100. You don't need to be a financial genius to work out that this is a great deal
- They're ugly and stick out the top of my lamp-shades.....Not any more. You can buy low energy bulbs that look just like your current conventional bulbs. Energy saving bulbs now come in hundreds of different designs, sizes, shapes, tones and colours. You are sure to be able to find one for almost all your light fittings
- They give off a cold light.....Not any more. The latest energy saving bulbs can give a warm and glowing light like a traditional bulb
- It hardly makes any difference...Wrong again. Each bulb will save up to half a tonne of CO2 over its life. Using them throughout your house, quickly adds up to a big impact.
- Halogen lights are low energy lights...this is a common misconception because some halogen bulbs are ‘low voltage'. However, they are a form of traditional incandescent bulb and are not low energy. Like ordinary incandescent bulbs they waste a lot of energy in the form of heat. You can buy some models which are lower energy than their peers, for example the Philips Masterline Halogen Energy Saver, or the Osram Decostar. The best thing to do, however, is not to have these types of lights fitted in the first place.
