Tag Archives: Lighting

Energy Savings Pays

BY: John Davies, Cold Climate Housing Research Center
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner August 21st, 2008, Section A3

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). Continue reading →

A Sustainable University Campus

About a new New York State campus that is using sustainable building practices. From the New York Times July 27, 2008:

“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.

New fuel cell technology could make solar energy more affordable for homes

From Reuters, July 31, 2008:

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) – A U.S. scientist has developed a new way of powering fuel cells that could make it practical for home owners to store solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances at night.

A new catalyst produces the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to generate electricity, while using far less energy than current methods.

Click here to read the full article.

Save a little energy by choosing the right lights

From the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer August 11, 2008.

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.

As Fairbanks energy woes grow, so does list of home weatherization tips

From the Fairbanks Daily Newminer July 20, 2008

Home-heating fuel costs $4.69 per gallon, two dollars more than September of last year.

With winter creeping closer, building and energy professionals are busy trying to get Fairbanks energy healthy, and some residents are taking matters into their own hands by attacking energy inefficiencies at home.

Click here to read the full article.

Lighten Your Electric Bill: Install New Lights

BY: John Davies, CCHRC Research Director
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 03/13/08 Section A3

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.

Continue reading →