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Lighten Up

It's time to make the switch to more efficient ways to light your home.

Daylight savings time means darker mornings - and earlier evenings. This means that you're switching on your lights a lot more often in the fall and winter months. Take the time to make the switch to some of these more eco-friendly choices. You'll lighten the demand on our energy resources and you may just lighten up your electricity bill, too!

Time for New Bulbs

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) are an energy-saving alternative to regular incandescent lightbulbs. CFLs may seem a little more expensive at first, but the lifespan is 10 to 15 times longer than a regular bulb, so you're changing them less often. CFLs are much more efficient, using only a quarter of the amount of energy to produce the same amount of brightness as traditional bulbs.

A word of caution: Due to a small amount of mercury in CFLs, they must be treated as hazardous waste, and cannot simply be tossed into the trash, and if they break, wear gloves to clean up the mess. Dispose of them the way you would dispose of other hazardous waste materials.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are also a good choice when thinking of outdoor decorative lighting, especially during the holidays. They're long lasting, use very little power and they don't heat up, so they're a great choice for lights that are on for long periods.

Add A Little Mood Lighting

Installing a dimmer switch can not only save you money, but it can help give a room a whole new feel. Lowering the lights at a meal can provide a candlelight dinner experience, while dimming can make your living room more like a home theatre when watching TV.

Dimmer switches are easy to install into existing wiring, and dimming the lights by 25% can save 20% of the watts needed to power those very same lights. Plus, dimming can help an incandescent bulb last 20 times longer if regularly dimmed by 50%. New to the market are dimmable CFLs, which will save even more energy.

Switch to Automatic

Another easy light-saving trick is to replace regular light switches with motion detectors. Try them in your children's rooms - especially if you're tired of always having to remind them to turn their lights off - so the lights automatically go off when they're not in the room.

Rekindle An Old Flame

There's something about candlelight. It can add a warm glow to a room, infuse the air with fragrance or put a spark of romance into an intimate dinner. But did you know that most scented candles are made from paraffin wax, a petroleum byproduct? Look for beeswax or soy candles instead. They're biodegradable, come from renewable resources, and help support beekeepers and soy bean farmers. And because beeswax and soy candles produce less black soot when lit, they burn cleaner, so the air quality is better, too.

Lastly, here's a bright idea everyone can do: turn off the lights when they're not in use.

For our full listing of all our green products, check out our Holiday Gift Guide.

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