SmartZone

The lighting isle at your local home improvement stores used to be very easy to navigate. All you had to decide was did you want a 40-watt bulb or a 60-watt one and did you want soft white or standard. Now those same isles are filled with light bulbs of all shapes, sizes, colors, and types. Incandescent, compact florescent (CFL), Halogen, LED, dimmable, non-dimmable, outdoor, indoor, make the madness stop! When presented with so many options it's easy to become overwhelmed. And when people become overwhelmed they rely upon what they know, or what they're most familiar with. More often than not, the factors of price and light color are what the average consumer bases their purchase decision upon. While that may have been fine in the past it's not today. Why? You're costing yourself 1000's of dollars!

 

Often the term energy efficiency is associated with lighting or equipment upgrades and building automation systems that require a business to invest significant capital expenditures. And while those are all accurate correlations, it isn't always the case. Whether you own or lease your business' office space, there are plenty of ways you can implement low-cost changes to reduce the energy it consumes. Read on to discover 10 ways you can start saving now.

There are plenty of light bulbs on the market today which bill themselves as being smart. They connect wirelessly to your network via WiFi or Z-wave empowering you to control your lighting with a smartphone and to schedule the time of day when they should turn on or off. But there's a new bulb on the horizon that may make all other smart lights look dumb by comparison. Stack Lighting is upping the ante with their  Alba LED light bulb. Check out the video and more details by clicking read more for the full article.

It's important to install the proper type of light bulb based on the usage patterns. Compact Florescent (CFL) bulbs are not designed to be turned on and off more frequently than once every 3 hours and have the longest life when used this way. In fact, the life of a CFL bulb can be reduced by as much as 40% if they are turned on and off too often. LED bulbs by contrast can be turned on and off as frequently as needed without affecting the life of the bulb. In areas where the lighting is turned on and off more frequently an LED bulb is a better fit than a CFL, and in areas where the lighting is left on for longer durations either bulb would be appropriate. So, the next time you go to replace a bulb think about how the lighting in that area is used and with what frequency it is switched on and off. By doing this you can save yourself a lot of hassle and money.