Nationwide, artificial lighting consumes about 10% of a household’s electricity use. Use of new lighting technologies can reduce lighting energy use in homes by 50%–75%. Upgrading 15 of the inefficient incandescent light bulbs in homes could save your customers about $50 per year.

New Light Bulbs: What’s the Difference?

Traditional incandescent bulbs use a lot of energy to produce light.

• 90% of the energy is wasted as heat
• That lost energy is money we are throwing away

Newer energy-saving light bulbs provide the choices in colors and light levels you’ve come to expect. The new lights are also much more efficient – so they save money.

What Are the Lighting Choices for your customers?

Three of the most common energy-efficient lighting types include halogen incandescents, CFLs, and LEDs. Compact Flouorescent Lamps are very popular and can be found in our Energy Efficient Lighting section.

CFLs – about 75% energy savings

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are simply curly versions of the long tube fluorescent lights you may already have installed in a homeowners’ kitchen or garage. Because they use less electricity than traditional incandescents, typical CFLs can pay for themselves in less than nine months, and then start saving you money each month. An ENERGY STAR-qualified CFL uses about one-fourth the energy and lasts ten times longer than a comparable incandescent bulb that puts out the same amount of light.

CFL bulbs are available in a range of light colors, including warm (white to yellow) tones that were not as available when first introduced. Some are encased in a cover to further diffuse the light and provide a similar shape to the bulbs you are replacing. If you are looking for a dimmable bulb for a homeowner, check the package to make sure you purchase a CFL with that feature.

Fluorescent bulbs contain a small amount of mercury, so don’t forget to remind homeowners that they should always be recycled at the end of their lifespan.

Source: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Any kind of commercial structure or building needs to plan for the climatic conditions. The sheer range of weather conditions from humid summers to snowy winters can often lead to a high level of energy consumption. Weatherizing your business is a smart and economical way to save money on your investment. We offer a wide variety of products for commercial businesses to use, to save money, and ensure efficiency in their work. Office buildings in the U.S. use an average of 17 kilowatt-hours of electricity and 32 cubic feet of natural gas per square foot annually. In a typical commercial construction project, lighting, heating, and cooling represent about 65 percent of the total energy use, making those systems the best targets for energy savings. Long-term measures include changes in:

• Lighting: This consists of installing compact fluorescent lighting. We have a wide selection of fluorescent bulbs for you to use in your building. Each bulb is reasonably priced and are more than triple the amount of watt generation that regular incandescent bulbs. This energy consumption saves you money in the long run, since most lighting in a building stays on longer than normal. Making this a huge return on your investment.
• Demand-Controlled Ventilation: Many general contractors use or are familiar with demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) systems, which are excellent additions for offices that have fluctuating occupancies. The DCV senses the level of carbon dioxide in the return air stream and uses it as an indicator of occupancy. DCV systems are particularly applicable to spaces like cafeterias, auditoriums and indoor parking garages. Air infiltration is important in a building which is why we offer cooler covers for your system to keep them controlled and maintained throughout the work day.
• Reflective Building Roof Coating: consider painting or re-coating the roof of your structure white or some other highly reflective color. This minimizes the amount of heat the building absorbs and can often result in a reduction of as much as 15 to 20 percent in the peak cooling demand. If painting is out of the question consider radiant barriers for your ceiling fixtures. This product is designed to reflect up to 97% of the radiant heat that hits its surface, which significantly reduces the amount of heat entered into the building.

Weatherizing your commercial business is a smart solution especially with the coming of spring and summer time. Summer is the time of year where commercial buildings tend to waste more energy which results in money down the drain. Investing in proper weatherization products will help ensure that your company saves money, while also saving the environment. Contact us today to learn more about weatherization and how we can help your company become more energy efficient.