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by: www.indobase.com

Many of like to settle down comfortably in some favorite corner of the house and spend some time reading books or magazines we love. All of us have some reading and writing to do at some point of time. These two activities put a strain on our eyes and thus what is needed is proper lighting to reduce the strain. Adequate desk lighting is a must for students for long hours of night study. Here are a few tips on how the lighting should be while studying, writing or working on a computer:

• Lighting should be bright and must be focused on to the area where you are working.
• Use task lighting as it is focused and does not create any shadows. This lighting illuminates only the work surface like the study table.
• Use halogen bulbs as experts consider them the best to illuminate reading material.
• Using fluorescent bulbs is better than using incandescent bulbs. Fluorescent bulbs last longer, save electricity and are now available in a variety of colors.
• Right-handed individuals should place the light on their left hand side and vice versa. This is to ensure that the shadow of the hand does not fall the pages.
• You should sit upright and read with the material at a distance of about 14 to 18 inches away from the eyes.
• For long night study one should choose glare-free task lighting.
• As an individual grows older his eyes become weaker. Thus older people need more light for reading and writing.

Originally posted 2009-04-18 17:51:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

March 7, 2011

Gregory Karp From Chicagotribune.com

How many tips does it take to change a light bulb?

A few more, apparently.

Despite avid media coverage and education campaigns by the government and environmental groups, consumers still aren’t flocking to newer, energy-efficient light bulbs.

Even in states with long-running and well-funded programs to promote compact fluorescent lamps, only 1 in 5 household sockets contain those bulbs, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Energy. Sales of CFLs peaked in 2007 and have declined since, the report says.

But a switch could be good for your wallet. And besides, you won’t have much choice soon.

A federal law passed in 2007 requires manufacturers to make light bulbs that emit the same brightness using less energy. Traditional incandescent bulbs can’t do that, so they’ll effectively be dropped from production over the next few years. As a consumer, you can continue using incandescents, but eventually you won’t be able to buy any more unless it’s a specialty bulb.

A phase-in of the new rules starts next January with 100-watt bulbs. That’s news to a lot of people. Just two in 10 people know about the 100-watt bulb’s impending extinction, according to a recent survey by lighting manufacturer Osram Sylvania.

Some consumers aware of the coming change — 13 percent — plan to stock up on incandescent 100-watt bulbs while they can get them, the survey found. A Consumer Reports blog referred to them as “Lightbulb Luddites.”

That’s probably because consumers have a better alternative to hoarding inefficient 100-watters. That is, switching to new energy-efficient bulbs, probably CFLs and perhaps halogen incandescents or light emitting diodes (LEDs), experts say.

“People don’t like change, even when it’s good for you,” said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy. “This is a change that can do good for your pocketbook and not do harm to quality of your life or the quality of your light.”

Here are questions and answers about energy-efficient lighting.

What’s changing? The demise of traditional 100-watt incandescent bulbs will be followed by 75-watt bulbs in 2013 and 60- and 40-watt bulbs in 2014. The new regulations actually don’t ban or promote any particular lighting technology. They require bulbs to be about 25 percent more efficient. Traditional incandescent bulbs can’t meet the new standard.

What about specialty fixtures? You’ll still be able to buy the same incandescent versions of decorative, appliance and other specialty bulbs.

What should I buy instead? The most popular and affordable replacement is the CFL, many of which have a swirl design.

“CFLs are a pretty good technology, and they’re getting better,” said Maria Vargas, spokeswoman with the federal Energy Star program. “But it’s not an exact replacement for incandescents, because it is a different technology.”

Today’s versions are far superior and come in sizes that fit most standard light fixtures.

“CFL manufacturers have responded favorably to all the historical consumer complaints,” said Terry Drew, director of energy efficiency and sustainability for CSA International, which tests and certifies light bulbs. More than 85 percent of consumers report they are satisfied with the performance of CFLs, according to the report by the Energy Department.

But halogen and LED lights are available, too, and have advantages. For example, LEDs and halogen bulbs are fully dimmable, come to full brightness instantly and contain no mercury. But they cost more.

How much money can I save? Anything that uses energy has two costs: the initial cost and the energy cost over its lifetime. CFLs win on both counts. The initial-cost advantage might not be obvious because a CFL bulb will cost more than an incandescent, maybe $1.50 per bulb compared with 50 cents. But the CFL will last up to 10 times longer, making it far cheaper over the long run on initial price alone.

“In the time you would replace one CFL, you’d have 10 spent incandescents sitting in your trash can,” said Chad Bulman, program manager for the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Then you have the energy savings. A CFL uses 75 percent less energy than an incandescent bulb. Each CFL can save you about $40 over its lifetime, according to Energy Star. Those living in regions with high electricity costs save more. The range is $30 to $60 in savings per bulb. More broadly, the new standards will save an American family of four an average of about $200 per year, estimates the Alliance to Save Energy.

A minor benefit to CFLs are they don’t burn hot. So, in the summer, you will potentially use a little less air conditioning.

What about the quality of CFLs? CFLs have gone through growing pains. They once were pretty lousy: expensive and with poor-quality light. But today they are cheaper and are more similar to regular light bulbs. Those who were disappointed by CFLs in the past might give them another try.

Are there drawbacks? CFLs still don’t work well in most dimmable switches. And while you’ll get most of the light right away, it might take a minute or so to achieve full brightness. They also have mixed effectiveness in outdoor fixtures, especially in cold weather.

Consumers have complained about brightness of CFLs. But that might be due to the bad advice of buying a CFL equal to one-quarter the wattage of an incandescent.

“I think that’s a mistake; it’s more like one-third,” Vargas said.

CFLs also have trace amounts of mercury, which is a potential health problem only if the bulb breaks, and you’d have to break several CFLs in a confined space to be in significant danger.

“The threat of CFL mercury is a bit overblown,” Bulman said. And environmentalists prefer you recycle burned-out CFLs, rather than throwing them in the trash. You can drop off spent, unbroken bulbs at any Home Depot. You can also visit lamprecycle.org.

How about other technologies? LED is the other major type of energy-efficient lighting. LED bulbs don’t suffer from many of the drawbacks of CFLs. They are fully dimmable and great for using outdoors. They are more energy efficient than CFLs and can last 25 years. But they are very expensive. An LED bulb might cost $40.

Another alternative is a halogen bulb. They are not that energy efficient, comparatively. So, they will save more money than traditional incandescents but less than CFLs. But they don’t suffer some of the CFL shortcomings. They, too, are fully dimmable and give good light. They might cost $4 to $5 a bulb.

Neither LEDs nor halogens contain mercury.

Bottom line. If you want to start easing your way into energy-efficient bulbs, replace your five most-used, nondimmable lights with Energy Star-certified CFLs. For best prices and variety, buy multipacks at big-box stores, such as home centers, mass discounters and warehouse clubs.

Originally posted 2011-03-12 09:48:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Beginning next year, traditional incandescent light bulbs (that’s right, Thomas Edison’s invention from 1879) will start to disappear from store shelves in an effort to save energy, reduce waste and use more environmentally-friendly products. Consumers will have two options moving forward: compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). While both of these applications are starting to catch on, many people are left asking themselves, which do I chose?

CFLs use about one fifth of the energy that incandescent lamps do and last up to five times longer, while LEDs are two to three times more energy-efficient than CFLs and about 10 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. Furthermore, according to most leading producers of LED lighting products, the 50,000-hour lifespan – which is not referring to when the lamps dies, but when it is at 70 percent of its original light output – of one of its LED lamps is 40- 50 times the life of a typical incandescent bulb and five times the lifetime of an average compact fluorescent lamp – which are rated until dead, not at 70 percent of original output. The manufacturer calculated that if one of its lamps were used for six hours every day, it would last for nearly 23 years! But what does this mean for you as a small business owner?

Not only will you be using less energy, but you’ll cut electrical bills and reduce maintenance and replacement costs for lighting. Just think about how many times you’re replacing lamps each year. Are you hiring an electrician each time? Let’s say you’re currently using the popular Par 38 incandescent lamps throughout your office burning 75-watts each for a normal eight-hour day. If you’re lucky, these will last 2000 hours, which means you’ll replace them on average twice a year. Think about the cost of the lamp itself, energy bills and maintenance fees. When you add everything up, you could be spending approximately $450 annually for just one incandescent lamp. Now, replace the Par 38 75-watt lamp with a 12-watt LED. You’ve immediately cut on energy costs and you won’t even think about replacing that bulb for 15 years.

While small business owners have an important decision to make in the coming years when it comes to their lighting, it’s important for everyone to keep the environment in mind and take proactive steps to make our Earth a cleaner and better functioning place to live. Before taking the plunge, here are five things to keep in mind to ensure you’re taking the right steps:

1. Hire the right team. Working with the right LED experts to help with your retrofit process is key. It pays to go to professionals with a proven track record of success and a vast selection of excellent quality products from various vendors. A history of successfully completed projects is also important.
2. Compare before and after. Ask for a detailed energy audit so you know exactly what you’re putting out in terms of your lighting. This will also help you to compare how much energy and money you’re saving once the LED lamps are in place.
3. Consider all options. LEDs are advancing by leaps and bounds every day. Take the time to work with your LED expert to determine the best color, brightness, design and application for your space. Also available are lamps with dimming capabilities.
4. Do your research. There are significant federal tax incentives and local utility rebates available for qualifying LED retrofit projects – some that can cover anywhere between 30-100 percent of the cost of your project!
5. Be sure the price is right. Remember that cheap is never better, but you can also over pay for a product. With so many on the market right now, seek the advice of an expert who can walk you through all of the different LED products and determine the best fit for your needs.

Originally posted 2011-03-26 09:49:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Author: Art Icklewright

Due the wide and varied nature of commercial premises e.g. factories, offices, public spaces, commercial lighting is in fact a broad term. What this kind of lighting has in common with domestic lighting is the need to save money, energy, and the environment without reducing the quality of the lighting. Commercial and domestic settings are also both subject to the new EU ruling which came into force in September to phase out incandescent bulbs in favour of more energy efficient energy saving bulbs and lamps / halogen and CFL bulbs.

Many of us may be familiar with the use of fluorescent lamps in e.g. office spaces. These gas discharge lamps combine the electricity with mercury in lamps / tubes to turn the ultra violet light produced into visible light that comes from the fluorescent effect generated by this reaction. Despite their bulkiness, these are much more energy efficient than incandescent lamps / bulbs.

Other familiar commercial settings for most of us are shops. These could use a combination of light sources, but to pick an example, retail high street clothing or gift shops will need long lasting, reliable, energy efficient bright lights for displays and accent lighting, preferably that don’t produce too much heat. Low voltage dichroic lamps work well for track and display lighting, are compact, have high efficacy and require low voltage. These multifaceted reflector lamps (MR) are compact and therefore flexible in how they can be deployed.

LED lamps can also be very compact, and they can provide a bright focused light source that doesn’t give off heat because they don’t use heated filament and gas combinations to produce the light. For this reason they could be used to provide light near to products on sale to enhance their appearance, without fear of damaging the products.

Other large public spaces, entertainment venues e.g. theatres, concert halls, stadiums etc, are likely to use intensely bright lamps that can light large areas if necessary such as (pressurized) metal halide lamps and parabolic aluminized reflector lamps (PAR lamps).

Although there are lamps most likely to appear only in some larger commercial settings, it is likely that most commercial lighting will involve a combination of lighting types which also have domestic applications.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/what-is-commercial-lighting-1680882.html

About the Author

Art Icklewright is an author specialising in lighting and light bulbs of all kind including low energy light bulbs, energy saving light bulbs and G9 bulbs.

Originally posted 2011-03-20 10:01:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

FPL downplays the impact of lighting on electric bills, with a page on its Web site that says “lighting is not typically a major user of energy in most homes [the average cost is $70 a year].” An energy calculator on the same page shows it costs $64.80 a month to burn 15 100-watt bulbs 12 hours a day. Comparable lighting produced by CFL bulbs would cost around $15 a month.

I went around my house the other day and counted 33 incandescent bulbs.

Forget the mall. This holiday season, I’m headed to the hardware store.

Michael Mayo’s column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at mmayo@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4508.

From Sun Sentinel - 12/21/08

President-elect Barack Obama has talked about turning the White House into the Green House and making energy efficiency in federal buildings and public schools a top priority.

“Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that,” Obama said in a Dec. 6 address. “We will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy efficient … by replacing heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs.”

Light bulbs? I had this picture in my mind of Obama and Al Gore standing on ladders, fiddling with every fixture around Washington, D.C.

I mean, how much can really be done by changing light bulbs?

Turns out a lot.

Just ask Giacomo Dresseno, longtime chef-owner of Primavera Restaurant in Oakland Park. Facing an economic downturn in a business with a slim profit margin, Dresseno decided to do something when his FPL bills climbed to nearly $3,000 a month last year.

He went green, switching hundreds of incandescent bulbs to the latest in Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) and Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs. He also got rid of some inefficient refrigerators.

The bottom line: His latest electric bill was $1,400, a 50 percent drop from its peak.

“It’s saving me $15,000 a year,” Dresseno said as he showed me the new lighting around the restaurant.

That’s a lotta pasta.

“It seems like a lot of work, but it’s not,” Dresseno said. “The technology is there, and it’s not that expensive.”

The only drawback: CFL bulbs contain a small amount of mercury, so if the bulb breaks it can be a hazard and a hassle.

Dresseno said he has spent less than a thousand dollars on the upgrades, an investment that paid for itself in less than a month. He showed me the new bulbs in the kitchen, with eight fluorescent fixtures drawing only 64 watts each, compared to 240 watts used by the old ones.

He showed off the women’s bathroom, where 45 watts’ worth of LED bulbs does the job that 480 watts of incandescent bulbs used to do.

Dresseno spoke about the ripple effects. “Feel this,” he said, as he unscrewed an LED bulb with his bare hand. It was warm to the touch, about 120 degrees, but it didn’t burn like an incandescent bulb. All those bulbs producing less heat means the air conditioning doesn’t kick on as much.

So maybe there is something to this, something simple and concrete most businesses and homes can do right now without installing expensive solar panels or building a windmill on the front lawn.

“I feel like it’s politically correct, it’s the right thing to do,” said Dresseno, originally from Lake Como, Italy. “And it puts more money in my pocket and less in FPL’s.”

Now that’s change we can believe in. Saving the planet is one thing, but getting revenge on our favorite utility by denting FPL’s bottom line should make this irresistible for South Floridians.

Originally posted 2009-04-18 09:29:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter