Ways to Make Your Home Lighting More Energy-Efficient

Your home’s lights are some of the most-used electrical features in your house, and improving lighting can thus have a sizable impact on your monthly electric bills. From basic energy-efficient lighting upgrades to complete solar power, there are many ways to upgrade your home’s lighting and reduce electric usage.

So, how do .you identify the right roofing professional? That’s what we examine next, so keep reading

1. Dust your Lightbulbs

Simply dusting your home’s lighting fixtures requires no investment, and can have a surprising impact on your lights’ effectiveness. Many people never dust their light bulbs, and their effectiveness thus diminishes as dust collects on them. You’ll likely find that lights are much brighter -- and you don’t need to use as many -- after dusting off your light fixtures.

Dusting lights is even more important as people switch over to LED bulbs (see section 3). LED bulbs last much longer than old-fashioned halogen ones, sometimes not needing to be changed out for several years. A lot of dust can collect during that time.

2. Place Lamps in Corners

If you have lamps in any rooms, place the lamps in the rooms’ corners if at all possible. Lamps that are placed in corners have their light reflected off of two walls. The lamps will appear brighter even though the bulb isn’t changed. With a brighter lamp, you’ll likely find that you need to use fewer lights in the room.

3. Upgrade to Energy-Efficient LED Bulbs

Lightbulb technology has made significant advancements in the past couple of decades, and today’s most energy efficient home lighting fixtures all use LED bulbs.

LED bulbs cost more upfront, but you’ll recoup the additional cost in the form of energy savings and lift span. ENERGY STAR bulbs are up to 75% more efficient than standard halogen ones, and they can last much longer before needing to be replaced. You may never have to replace LED bulbs for as long as you live in your home.

4. Install Sun Tunnels

Skylights can greatly brighten a room during the day, possibly enough that you don’t need artificial lighting in the room when it’s sunny. Skylights can only brighten rooms that have access to the roof, though.

Sun tunnels act much like skylights, except they use a series of mirrors to direct light toward interior rooms that don’t have roof access. With Velux Sun Tunnels, any room in your house can be brightened by natural sunlight -- and there’s certainly plenty of natural sunlight in Las Vegas.

5. Switch to Solar

For the ultimate in energy efficiency, switch your home to solar power. Your lights won’t need electricity from the grid during the day or night, as the solar power that’s harvested can be stored in large-capacity batteries. Of course, your home’s other features also will draw from your solar capacity rather than the grid (provided you have a properly sized home solar panel system).

We at Cooper Roofing & Solar can help you design a solar panel system that’s right for your home. The system can be installed on its own, or alongside Velux Sun Tunnels. Since we’re a roofing and solar company, we can devise a solution that incorporates both of these electricity-reducing strategies.

To learn more about our solar panels or sun tunnels, contact us today. We’ll be out quickly, and you can also implement these other energy-efficient lighting strategies in the meantime