Modern Illumination

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With modular compact fluorescent lights, the savings will be even greater, because as lamps fail, only the lamp itself and not the ballast has to be replaced.

HID Lighting

High-intensity discharge or HID lighting is what you typically see along streets and in parking lots. HID lighting has advanced almost as quickly as fluorescent lighting in recent years. There are three types commonly used: mercury vapor, high-pressure sodium, and metal halide. Like fluorescent lights, they require ballasts to operate, and most HID lights take several minutes to warm up.

Mercury vapor lights are still the most common for outdoor lighting around homes, but they are quickly becoming obsolete because of the higher efficiency and improved color quality of high-pressure sodium and metal halide lights. High-pressure sodium lamps are available with efficiencies as high as 140 lumens per watt, though the light is a bit yellowish. Metal halide lights produce a whiter light, closer to incandescent in quality, but the efficiency is lower than that of high-pressure sodium.

The primary place you will use HID lighting at home is out doors: to light up the driveway, tennis court, etc. But a few manufacturers have introduced products designed for indoor lighting

Halogen Lighting

Halogen or tungsten-halogen lighting has improved somewhat over the past few years and remains the lighting of choice where extremely high light quality or precise light focusing is required. It's really a type of incandescent lighting, but it's somewhat more efficient—though still considerably less efficient than fluorescent lighting. In situations where light is needed on a precise area, halogen lights can effectively be more efficient than fluorescent lights, because they can be more accurately focused. In fact, 40 percent savings are possible, according to manufacturers.

Halogen lamps are most common in reflector configurations but some manufacturers also offer halogen replacements for standard incandescent light bulbs.

Lighting Controls

In addition to saving energy by using more energy-efficient lights, you can also save by having the lights on for shorter periods of time or at a lower output level. The simplest lighting control strategy, of course, is to turn lights off when you leave a room. Even if you are leaving for just a few minutes, it saves energy to turn the lights off. This applies to both incandescent and fluorescent lights.

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