I’m personally not a big fan of landscape lighting, because 99% of the time you don’t need it at all. As they say in the business: “the most efficient light is the light that you don’t use.” But for many, landscape lighting is a necessity. In this post, I’ll cover several ways you can reduce [...]
Archive for the ‘Lighting’ Category
High Efficiency Outdoor and Landscape Lighting
Posted: January 21, 2012 in Conservation, LightingTags: landscape lighting, landscape lights, LED landscape lights, t-10 lights, wedge bulbs
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LED Christmas Lights
Posted: December 15, 2011 in Conservation, LightingTags: Christmas lights, colored lights, energy consumption, holiday lighting, holiday lights, incandescent bulbs, light strings, tiny bulbs
As you shop this holiday season, you’re probably seeing a lot more LED Christmas lights. Their colors are more vibrant and they’re vastly more energy efficient than conventional incandescent Christmas lights. But do they pay off? Let me ask you something – when you buy a string of lights for decorating, are you thinking “what [...]
The Dangers of Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Posted: November 16, 2011 in Conservation, LightingTags: CFL, compact fluorescent, mercury
There’s a lot of debate about the danger of CFL’s due to the mercury they contain. But how much is it really? And what happens when the bulb breaks? A recent study, reported in Home Energy Magazine, may surprise you. The study involved breaking new CFL bulbs from a variety of manufacturers and measuring how [...]
Ted’s Top Tips to Help You Beat the Heat!
Posted: July 20, 2011 in Building Science, Conservation, Construction techniques, Energy auditing, HVAC, Insulation, Lighting, WindowsTags: air conditioning, heat, insulation, save electricity, save energy, saving electricy, saving energy, summer, top ways to save electricity, top ways to save energy
Record temperatures are creating uncomfortable conditions all over. Here in Pennsylvania, we’re expecting near 100F temperatures for much of this week, while Chicago just suffered through a heat index of 115F! Along with high temperatures come big utility bills because of all the air conditioner usage. In this post, I’ll give you some tips for [...]
YALEDLB – Yet Another LED Light Bulb! Philips 75W Replacement!
Posted: May 16, 2011 in Conservation, LightingTags: enduraled, led light, philips
Great news for all us energy geeks! Now Philips has an LED bulb that puts out 1100 lumens – in technical terms, that’s a bucket load of light! For comparison, most of the other screw-in LED lights I’ve been commenting on put out the equivalent of a 40w-60w light bulb, maybe 600-800 lumens. For more [...]
LED Bulb under $10 at Lowes!
Posted: April 30, 2011 in Conservation, LightingTags: LED bulb, led light
A friend just turned me on to this special deal at Lowes in Pennsylvania. The bulb, which he noted is manufactured by Feit (a highly reputable brand) is currently available for $9.98 at this link. I just bought five more of the $20 Feit bulbs, so I was a bit chagrined to learn about this. [...]
How to Increase the Energy Efficiency of Your Existing Home
Posted: April 25, 2011 in Conservation, Construction techniques, Energy auditing, HVAC, Insulation, Lighting, Mold & MoistureTags: energy audit, energy efficiency, save electricity, save energy, saving electricy, saving energy
This post by an energy auditor in central PA summarizes a lot of the information required to make your home more energy efficient, all in one spot. It’s like you took all my posts to date and wrapped it up into a single article! Definitely worth a skim. For those of your unfamiliar with ChrisMartenson.com, Chris [...]
Energy Geek Video – New CREE CR6 LED Downlight Replacement
Posted: March 22, 2011 in Conservation, Lighting, ReviewTags: CREE CR6, Cree downlight, Cree LED, energy efficiency, energy efficiency lighting, LED downlight, led light
The CREE CR6 is the latest in a line of energy efficient LED lights made by CREE. This light addresses some of the issues of the earlier lights, allowing dimming down to 5% and having a compact, light-weight package at about half the cost of earlier models. It draws only 10.5 Watts yet produces as [...]
Pharox Dimmable LED Bulb
Posted: March 17, 2011 in Conservation, Lighting, ReviewTags: energy efficiency, LED bulb, led light, lightbulb, Pharox
Just got a Pharox 300 dimmable LED bulb after my nephew (thanks Jason!) reported success with his. Guess what? It actually works as advertised! The thing dims right along with a conventional incandescent bulb – finally! This is a standard Edison bulb, so you can use it in just about any fixture. The light is [...]
The Energy Geek Video 2: LED Recessed Light Retrofit
Posted: March 7, 2011 in Conservation, Lighting, ReviewTags: Cree downlight, Cree LED, Cree lr6, high efficiency light, high efficiency lighting, led light, led lighting, lighting
A lot of people ask me about recessed lights, so I put together this video so you could see some of the pros and cons of the best LED light I’ve ever seen. The CREE LR6, LED based recessed light retrofit is the current one to beat. It’s simply amazing. It turns on instantly, it [...]
