Can you imagine capturing modern lighting in a tea bag? Well, it’s happened and there is so much more happening in the field of modern lighting fixtures. What makes modern lighting relevant today is that it sets the right mood, ambience and feel to interiors. Plan out in advance what are the locations in your home that require lights and fixtures. Location can be indoor or outdoors.
There is so much creativity in the design element of modern lighting. Take trendy modern lighting fixtures like glass pendant lamps in the kitchen or fixtures which have an exotic design, with fine covering and sparkling veneer.
Of course, the kind of modern lighting you want to buy depends greatly on your lifestyle and requirements. The purpose of modern lighting is not just to provide light in your rooms but to accentuate your taste and serve as a stylistic statement of your interior. Modern lighting in a living room will differ from what you may require in the bathroom. If the room is big, it may require more lighting fixtures than a room that is small. For outdoor lighting, it is best to buy enclosed fixtures so that they do not get stolen.
Conventional and Contemporary Choices in Modern Lighting
The choice of using incandescent bulbs is massive and conventions. However, CFL lighting is the best option to save on power. In the context of being energy efficient, halogen bulbs are also useful as these use up about 50% less energy than incandescent bulbs. However, these fittings are manufactured using expensive insulative materials. So, the cost is always higher.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Modern Lighting
Here are some important factors to consider before you buy modern lighting for your home:
Form and function represents the potential pointers to consider when you want to think about modern lighting for each room.
Think about the purpose of modern lighting in your chosen room. For example, kitchens require bright illumination around the work areas and counter tops but for bedrooms, light options can be mellowed with bedside lamps, controlled pendant lighting or floor standing uprighters.
Flexibility and subtlety can be considered when buying modern lights. Take the example of accent light which can be used in alcoves or display areas of living rooms to add more light and style.
At Emmo Home, the goal is simple: to serve both homeowners and design professionals with the trendiest and best energy efficient choices in modern lighting.
CFL light bulbs (energy efficent light bulbs) have MERCURY in them! Bad for the earth!!!
I love the CFL light bulbs, especially when you get one different from others. Most I have used start up like a regular light bulb, pretty much instant. But this one I have hesitates when first fired up. I also want to apologize for the poor video quality…I didn’t have much light in my room. … “cfl fluorescent bulb” cfl cfl’s “light bulb” squiggly
I replaced the solenoid with a simple electromagnet, mounted everything on a board and made a simple quiet charger/ CFL light. … Radiant energy charger CFL Electronics Alternative Energy
It’s just a week after the World Earth Day and the whole world is buzzing to make some lifestyle changes. Whether it’s about saving the environment, reducing global warming or the endangered species, people all over the world are ready to make efforts.
A study says, if every household in the US replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road.
LEDs, CFLs, take over the world
With people replacing traditional incandescent light bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), light emitting diodes (LED) and other low-energy lighting and governments like Australia, Britain and America implementing or contemplating plans to change their light bulbs for the better, it is becoming a global phenomenon. As part of the policy changes, entrepreneurs are also putting global warming on the forefront.
Together they work
Experts say a combination of LED and CFL light works best for the homes. For recessed lights, you can use the LED bulbs. They are perfect for this type of lighting, are the most energy efficient, and last far longer than even a CFL bulb. The absence of mercury in an LED bulb is also a big plus.
You can replace the remaining lights with CFL bulbs, but with exception of one. The mercury content is a concern, but with improved technology the amount of mercury has decreased to quite a bit. You can buy what are called “Alto” CFLs that have less mercury than other CFL bulbs. Philips is the major player.
For the eyes that hurt
That one exception is the study lamp. Most people think brighter is better, however over illumination causes headache and even migraines in worst cases. Especially in children over illumination interferes with their learning process. Children experiencing any form of stress are more likely to suffer from dysgraphia, a problem in learning to write and low performance levels. Studylite with LED bulbs is the best option when it comes to task work like studying.
StudyLite™’s the winner
StudyLite™ is a breakthrough in this spectrum. Developed in collaboration with Sankara Nethralaya, the StudyLite™ has been designed to provide ideal lighting for studies. Not only does it offer flicker free, white light, but also emits no UV or IR radiations. Same as your regular LEDs; uses only 10% of the power consumed by ordinary light and lasts up to 50 times longer.
Guess it’s time we all embrace sustainability and create less earth-endangering homes.
Simple tasks to be more environmental include choosing peat free soil conditioners, using a water butt to catch and store rain water is an invaluable water resource for the garden. Soil fertility is greatly enhanced by regular additions of composted organic matter. Every garden requires at least two composters, but composters need not resemble the typical waste bin. Instead why not choose one that you don’t need to hide but one that will actually blend in or place in a prominent position as a garden feature. The Beehive Composter is an excellent example of a composter designed to look like a Beehive but making an aesthetically pleasing way to compost in the garden. Constructed from Mahogany WBP ply and with a very high level of workmanship and finishing, it can also be used as a Garden Tool Tidy or indeed simply as a novel feature.
BEEHIVE COMPOSTER
Go for the ‘top of the range’ and make your compost corner an attractive feature. No need to hide plastic tubs or rotting heaps at the bottom of the garden anymore. The Beehive Composter is designed to meet the requirements of the discerning user and is an excellent composter particularly for townhouse gardens where ‘form comes before function’. It can also be used as an attractive garden tidy/store for tools etc. Quality of workmanship and finishing sets our beehive composters apart. Choose from the very popular flatpack or one of our ready assembled models. Our Beehive Composters are supplied in natural ready for you to paint or stain in the colour of your choice.
We believe our beehive composter is the best quality available with a high level of workmanship and finishing. It’s constructed from mahogany WBP ply which will give a longer outdoor life. In addition, solid brass hinges and screws are used for the lid.
The composter has a capacity of approx 230 litres, measures 560×560 x880, and comes with a hinged lid for ease of depositing all manner of household and garden waste. The completed compost is removed via a panel at the bottom.
The Beehive Composter will make a beautiful design statement in any garden and is available from:
http://www.owenchubblandscapers.com/
Remember also, you do not have to compromise lighting effects for energy saving, choose CFL lamps.
Compact Fluorescent lighting (CFL) and more recently LED lighting are two excellent ways to providing energy efficient lighting in today’s garden.
The author is principal of OWEN CHUBB GARDEN LANDSCAPES LIMITED, an established and award winning garden landscaping company based in Dublin, Ireland. The company offers clients a complete landscaping service including Garden Design, Construction &Planting.
For more information about company and inspiring aspects of landscaping, visit:
http://www.owenchubblandscapers.com
The fluorescent bulbs of today are a far cry from those loudly buzzing, sterile white tubes seen in offices and hospitals in the 80’s. Now available in a wide range of styles and “color temperatures,” eco-friendly compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are designed for the home and screw into many of the medium socket and candelabra lamps sold on our site. Use them in ceiling fixtures, sconces, chandeliers and other light fixtures.
Very simply put, CFLs generate light when electrons from the bulb’s ballast collide with mercury vapor throughout the bulb’s length, which in turn stimulates a phosphor coating on the inside of the glass. The result is a steady luminescence that is also incredibly energy-efficient, because more energy is spent on producing light (measured in lumens) and less is wasted on producing heat! This is why CFLs stay cooler to the touch than an incandescent bulb, and why a low-watt CFL brightens a room with the same intensity of a high watt incandescent bulb. Incandescent bulbs and their CFL equivalent are as follows:
60 Watts=13-18 Watts CFL
75 Watts=18-22 Watts CFL
100 Watts=23-28 Watts CFL
150 Watts=30-38 Watts CFL
But it gets even better! Because compact fluorescent lamps use about 66% less energy than incandescent bulbs for the same amount of light, you can save up to $45 dollars a year when you choose an 18 watt CFL over a 75 watt incandescent bulb. Within the first 500 hours of use, your bulb has made up for it’s initially higher price. What’s more, compact fluorescent bulbs last an average of 10 to 15 times longer than a standard filament bulb, putting an end to chronic bulb replacement and halting the surge of burnt out bulbs entering our landfills. And since CFL’s expend less energy, there is less demand on electric power plants that burn polluting fossil fuels. Amazingly, swapping out ONE incandescent bulb with a CFL will keep half a ton of CO2 out of the air for the CFL’s lifetime! You can make a positive impact on the environment simply by screwing in a CFL.
Once a CFL is spent, it’s legal to throw it in the trash; however, these energy-efficient bulbs do contain trace amounts of mercury vapor. If they are sent to an incinerator, this mercury could enter the atmosphere. Instead, collect your CFLs for your community household hazardous waste collection for treatment and recycling; if a bulb breaks, take care not to inhale the vapor and promptly wipe up pieces with a wet rag. Toss everything, including the rag, into a plastic bag for proper disposal. It’s important to note that the overall benefits of a CFL’s energy-saving operation far outweigh any risk trace amounts of mercury vapor in the bulb may pose to landfills.
How to save power at home
We all learned about the renewable and non-renewable sources of energy in school. However, we never paid much attention to the rapid consumption of the non-renewable sources of energy until recently. The world is faced with severe energy crisis now and none of us remain unaffected anymore. Should we leave everything to the governments, or can we do something to save power? The answer is simple: we can.
Let us look at how you can save power at home.
Computer: More often than not, we do not switch off our monitors even after we have shut down our computers. Keep the monitor and the computer switched off when you are not using them. Start practicing this even when at work. You will help save some more power for the world.
Light bulbs: You must have seen compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs being advertised all the time. You must have even used them at times. As a power-saving measure, start using the CFL light bulbs as much as you can. If you are thinking they are more expensive than the regular bulbs, the benefits of the CFL bulbs will prove much more cost-effective in the long turn by the amount of power they will save.
Air Conditioner: Set the temperature at the minimum or maximum best you are comfortable with, depending on the season. Try not to set it at too high or too low temperatures. Setting the air conditioner at reasonable temperatures helps save a lot of energy.
Washing Machines: Do you use your washing machine as often as you want? Do you use your washing machine even when there are not enough clothes to wash? Minimize the number of washes by washing full load of clothes every time.
Television: Take off the power plug of your television set when not using it. This may not sound a big deal but this tiny step will help save power.
Geysers: Keep the geyser thermostat at the minimum heat. You do not need to heat the water at a very high temperature or for too long.
Refrigerator: Bring hot food to room temperatures before putting it into the refrigerator. You can also save power by taking cold or frozen food out of the refrigerator much before the mealtime, thereby saving power in heating it.
Car: For an air-conditioner equipped car, pull up the windows of your car before switching on the air-conditioner.
Make power at home with solar and wind energy to eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at http://earch4energy.pinurl.com/
CFL bulbs do consume less electricity than incadescent bulbs to produce the same amount of light (lumens). But in colder climates the waste heat of an operating incadescent light does contribute to the heat required to warm a room.
Today’s air conditioners have nominal SEER ratings of 10. Which means that they can remove 10 units of heat for every unit of electrical power they consume. Therefore, the heat produced by a 100W light bulb would only require 10W of electrical power over the same period of amount of time that the bulb was operated to remove the heat from the air conditioned space.
What I’m suggesting is that the overall efficiencies of CFL’s are not as high as many people believe and that incandescent lights are not as inefficient as many people believe. In the final analysis, CFL’s are more efficient but at what costs and what environmental hazzards. The true future for lighting will probably be light emitting diodes.
I am living in the dorms next semester at school and I have a dwarf meyer lemon tree. I really don’t have a lot of room (or money), so would I be able to use compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs to provide my tree some if not most of the light it needs. If CFLs won’t work, what do you recommend to use as a cheap way to set up and buy grow lights?