Lighting

Yes, lighting can be one of the most important things any office can do to become more energy efficient. According to Energy Star, if every American home replaces just one bulb with an Energy Star bulb, we would save enough money to light more that 3 million homes for a year which adds up to more than 600 million dollars in annual energy costs. In addition to these dollar savings, we would be lowering greenhouse gasses equal to the amount omitted by more than 80,000 cars.

Compact florescent light bulbs or "CFL's" contain a very small amount of mercury, according to Energy Star, about 4 milligrams or the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. Because of this minute amount of mercury contained within the glass, it's important to recycle them properly. Most landfills have a special area for recycling CFL's and stores that sell them such as Home Depot have drop off sites in their stores for burned out light bulbs.

In a word, lighting is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to start saving energy. A bonus is that it will also save money. It's not uncommon to save $30.00 or more in electricity costs over the lifetime of each bulb.

Check the Kelvin rating. Bulbs with a lower K rating give off soft warm light, good for living rooms and bedrooms. Bulbs with higher K rating give off a cooler white or bluish light similar to daylight.

The lumen rating will indicate how great the light output will be, the higher the Lumen rating, the greater the light output.