Mention “new lighting technology” and what leaps to mind is probably a compact fluorescent curlicue. Shaped like a soft ice cream cone, it is viewed as a replacement for the ubiquitous 60-watt incandescent light bulb, which looks almost like it did 90 years ago.

But a profusion of light-emitting-diode lamps is about to hit the market, many of them in applications that are awkward or impossible for compact fluorescents.

LED’s are still mostly specialty items sold on the Web. But by the end of this month, the 2,200 Home Depot stores around the United States will stock seven types, including two substitutes for the classic incandescent bulb, one of which my colleague Leslie Kaufman reported on recently.

But those are “not the most compelling use” of LED technology, according to Zachary S. Gibler, chief executive of the Lighting Science Group Corporation, which makes the lamps that Home Depot will stock. Replacing a standard 60-watt bulb, an LED will produce roughly the same amount of light per watt of electricity as a compact fluorescent; its only advantages, he said, is that it is fully dimmable and lasts a lot longer.

Another product his company is marketing is something most consumers can identify, but not name: a round lamp with a face about the size of a silver dollar, with a base consisting of two metal pins, often used for accent lighting in kitchens or retail stores. Called an MR16, it is almost always halogen, which is only slightly more efficient than a standard incandescent. It is much too small to allow for a fluorescent version.

But Lighting Science is selling an LED version. Installed over my kitchen sink, it casts a much whiter light than the yellowish halogen it replaced. It can take a bit of getting used to, but vegetables in the sink seem truer in its light. A 6-watt version can replace a 35-watt halogen, which is a consideration if it’s the light you leave on all night.

Continue reading: LED Lamps Go Where Compact Fluorescents Cannot

The second annual Sylvania Socket Survey was just released, illuminating consumer attitudes and behaviors when it comes to energy-efficient, green lighting. According to the report, a whopping 74% of respondents are now using compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), although the same fraction are not aware of the impending congressional ban on incandescent bulbs that begins in 2012. Perhaps not surprisingly, there still isn’t that much knowledge about next-generation LEDs.

By CCHRC Staff

Q: Why is it beneficial to have south-facing windows on a home?

Because of the orientation with the sun, south-facing windows bring in both light and heat, which are important for homes in our climate. If you have a lot of north-facing windows, you’re going to lose a lot of heat with not a lot of heat gain.

The amount of heat your home gains from the sun should not be underestimated and sunlight also is good for your mood.

At the same time, some homes can become overheated in months like March, when there is no vegetation to provide shade, and the sun comes directly through your windows. Also, in the summer, the hot sun can overheat your home if your roof does not have enough overhang to shade your windows. Again, trees and other vegetation will help here as well.

Before you build your home, get a sense of where the sunlight falls in both winter and summer. If you are a morning person and you need that morning light to help wake you up, you’ll want to place your windows appropriately. If you like to entertain in the evening summer sun, then put windows in the appropriate place for that. It’s not just about getting light to see and heat your home, think about how light will affect your life in your home.

Q: I want to put a chimney in for a stove, but there are a bunch of things in the way, including a beam. How can I get around that?

It’s always frustrating when you’ve got the perfect place for a stove, but something is in the way. Ideally a chimney should be a straight shot for easy cleaning and proper drafting, but sometimes it just isn’t possible and you’ve got to put an elbow in the pipe. The best place to put an elbow is at the bottom because it allows you to scrub the chimney top to bottom when you clean it and you can still get inside the stove and vacuum out that elbow piece.

Sometimes you can run a stovepipe directly out the side of the house and up the exterior wall. How well this works is case dependent. If there is too much pipe in an uninsulated space, then the pipe can get cold and as a result, some of the smoke will get cold which can cause creosote build up and create a chimney fire hazard. Also, a fire started with a stovepipe that is cold may not draft properly so it may smoke and smolder and even introduce pollutants into your house if it’s not an airtight stove.

LEDs use less power, have a longer life and are more durable than compact fluorescents. Initially there have been some costs that have kept them from reaching the broad market, but every year brings new innovations in LED technology, bringing the cost down and improving the quality of light they produce. Compact fluorescents contain mercury, so disposing of them is a problem, while LEDs are fairly non-toxic. LEDs also work better than the average bulb in cold temperatures, which is important in our climate.

Alaska HomeWise articles promote home awareness for the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC). If you have a question, e-mail us at akhomewise@cchrc.org. You can also call the CCHRC at (907) 457-3454

Click here to read a white paper on the law’s lighting provisions, produced by the Lighting Controls Association.

Is your head swimming with all the talk about energy costs, weatherization, and energy rebates? Are you looking for a good, comprehensive source of information that explains the basics of energy use in your home and what steps you can take to save energy? If so, I recommend the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings published by New Society Publishers for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

You can use this guide in a number of different ways to help save energy. It will help you (1) consider ways to reduce your heating bills, for example by improving insulation levels or replacing windows, (2) evaluate whether replacing existing appliances such as refrigerators and electric hot water heaters can help save on your electric bill, (3) reduce energy use by operating existing appliances more wisely— such as maintaining the temperature of refrigerators and freezers at optimal levels and using the dishwasher’s energy saver setting, (4) decide whether you can reduce your energy costs by replacing major systems such as your boiler or furnace, (5) understand and evaluate the recommendations that an energy rater may have made for your house, and (6) calculate reductions in your carbon footprint from all of the steps you choose to take.

The book begins with a general discussion of the environmental impacts of energy use (and waste) in our homes and the monetary savings possible by reducing these impacts. The authors then present individual chapters on the building envelope (insulation, caulking, windows, and doors), ventilation, heating and cooling systems, water heating, food storage and cooking, dishwashing, laundry, lighting, home electronics, and other energy uses in the home. Each of these chapters has good introductions to how the different systems in our houses work, specific measures that we can take to improve or replace them, and many pointers to other sources of information.

The guide is brimming with informative tables and helpful illustrations. One of the best is the Home Energy Checklist for Action – this is a “best seller” available for free at the PORTAL (Portal on Retrofits, Training and Loans, located on Driveway Street, across from the old train station). The checklist gives some ideas of simple things that you can do today, this week, this month, and this year.

You can reference the guide at the Builder’s Resource Library in the Cold Climate Housing Research Center located at 1000 Fairbanks Street. The 9th edition of the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings by Jennifer Thorne Amann, Alex Wilson, and Katie Ackerly is also available for purchase ($10 – $18) from the Alaska Building Science Network, Amazon Books, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Gulliver’s Books, and New Society Publishers.

John Davies is Research Director at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC). Visit CCHRC online at www.cchrc.org or call 457-3454 for more information.

“Stony Brook Southampton will certainly be among a limited number of campuses with this level of commitment to sustainability,” says Judy Walton, acting executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. “Sustainability is really a change in the mind-set of how we operate. It’s like seeing the world through a new lens.”

But most significant is how Southampton, a part of Stony Brook University, is writing into its courses the concept of sustainability. Students study it when they study literature, economics, architecture or statistics.

Click here to read the whole article.

Here’s an amazing fact: About 10 percent of the energy used by a regular incandescent light bulb goes to produce light. The rest is wasted as heat. Though heat is always nice in our cold winters, it is very inefficient heat at a very high cost.

Energy-efficient lights produce more light than heat with the electricity they use. As a result, they can provide the same amount of light as a standard bulb while using less energy. Since lighting can make up as much as 20 percent of the house energy bill, conservation here can amount to considerable savings.

Click here to read the full article.

There are many different types of energy efficient lighting available. For indoor use, typical choices involve replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFL) or old fluorescent tubes (T12) with newer ones (T8 or T5). LED lighting is available for some uses such as holiday and closet lighting, exit signs, work lights, etc., but for general illumination they are still somewhat expensive and limited in availability.

Replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs is as easy as unscrewing the old bulb and replacing it with a CFL of comparable light output, usually measured in lumens. The energy savings can be 50-80% and most bulb types are readily available. This is a classic no-brainer, although there are some limitations—they don’t work very well at low temperatures, if at all, and switching the light off and on many times per day can significantly shorten the bulb life. They are perfect for locations where they are likely to be on for several hours per day such as kitchens, living rooms, play or work areas, and bedrooms.

Replacing old T12 fluorescent tubes with the newer T8 ones is another matter. To use the new tubes in the old fixtures and get the maximum value in energy savings and light quality you must replace the old magnetic ballast with a new electronic ballast. The electronic ballasts are more energy efficient; eliminate the hum and flicker associated with the old magnetic versions; they have instant, rapid, and programmed start options; and some are dimmable.

A difficulty is that they are wired differently in the fixture, so replacing the ballast requires some electrical acumen. If you don’t have the skills yourself or don’t want to hire an electrician, you can simply buy a new fixture that has the ballast installed in it. The rewiring is not hard (it took me about 20 minutes to revamp a 4-tube fixture), and ballasts for 2- and 4-tube fixtures are readily available in local electrical stores at a cost ranging from about $18 to $40. For the project in our kitchen, replacing four T12 tubes with four T8 tubes, I figure that we will recoup our cost for the ballasts in about one year, a 100% return on our investment! Not bad.

In some applications, T5 tubes are a better choice. They are slightly more energy efficient, generally brighter and well suited for indirect or diffused lighting or very high ceilings. You will need to buy new fixtures as the T5 tubes are shorter than the comparable T12/T8 standard lengths.

Almost any choice that you make in replacing old lighting with newer options will reduce your electric bill and you can feel good about also reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Additional Information

EPA Energy Star Program: Light Bulbs and Fixtures

DOE Building Technologies Program: Lighting