Efficient Lighting saves energy

Efficient Lighting

Incandescent lights are basically electric space heaters that give off light as a byproduct. They are VERY inefficient, wasting most of the power they consume as heat.

Since lights are one of the biggest power uses in a remote home, pay close attention to what kind you use. If you replace all of your lights with efficient versions, you may be able to get by with fewer expensive batteries and solar panels.

You may have noticed that we've made major changes to this page. This is because of new information given to us by some lighting experts regarding lighting efficiency. Our thanks to Don Klipstein and Victor Roberts for the engineering lessons...

Otherpower.com's lighting recommendations in a nutshell: For best efficiency, use fluorescents of any type. Install standard fluorescents in workspaces where you can stand the blue-tinged light, hum and flicker. Use compact flourescents in living spaces for a more 'friendly' ambiance. Use halogen lighting for outdoor applications where temperature causes problems with fluorescents. Use white LED lighting for applications that normally use dismally-efficient small incandescents...task lights, nightlights, pathway lighting, exit signs, and flashlights. Don't use incandescent lighting at all if you can afford to avoid it.



Lighting Efficiency Ratings

A standard way of rating lighting efficiency is in lumens per watt--this figure accounts for all of the light produced by a bulb. This rating does not necessarily reflect how much usable light is is thrown on your work area. The reflector and fixture will have a large effect on this. So be sure to read our guidelines for each type of lighting discussed below--lights that show a lower efficiency may still save you energy depending on the application. Be aware of the different ways that lighting efficiency can be represented. For example, there's a big difference between two common LED manufacturer's efficiency specs -- some show only lumens per watt of light output, while others show lumens per watt used by the LED. The latter is useful information, a true efficiency rating. The former does not include power wasted as heat, and is useless for evaluating lighting in an off-grid home.

• 32 watt T8 fluorescent--85 to 95 lumens/watt
• standard F40T12 cool white fluorescent--60-65 lumens/watt
• compact fluorescents--low 30's to low 60's lumens per watt, usually 48-60
• UPDATE 12-2006 -- The newest white LEDs shipping from manufacturers in 2006 are approaching the efficiency of compact fluorescents, into the 50-60 lumens/watt range. At this time, however, there are no RE lighting products that use these new LEDs, and they remain extremely expensive. Manufacturer's research labs are also reporting new white LEDs that approach the 80+ lumens/watt of T8 fluorescents. However, these products are not shipping yet.
• T3 tubular halogen--20 lumens/watt
• white LED--15-19 lumens/watt
• standard 100 watt incandescent--17 lumens/watt
• incandescent night light bulb (7w)--6 lumens/watt
• incandescent flashlight bulbs--dismal, less than 6 lumens/watt

But wait! What about all the white LED high-efficiency claims that are all over...including the claims that used to be on this site? Unfortunately, much of this information is incorrect. Comparing the efficiency of a white LED light with a compact fluorescent by measuring the intensity of a tiny spot within the beam does NOT give proper efficiency results. We got much of our data for efficiency claims from an article in Home Power Magazine