How to Green Your Lighting

So You Wanna Do More

Not content with just getting by? Go hardcore.

Daylight pays
From hockey rinks and schools, to Wal-Mart, to euro office buildings, natural lighting is being used to do better business, make people happier, and save energy and dollars. The presence of day-lighting often shows increased worker satisfaction and productivity in offices, better test scores in schools, increased sales in retail settings, and, of course, lower energy bills.

Working with the sun
Planning your day around the planet’s great source of free, full-spectrum light is good for the brain and body, and will mean less burning of the midnight oil. Optimization theory takes advantage of the daylight cycle. It’s not just for energy savings and bringing more natural light in your life, but that’s definitely part of it.

By the Numbers

Want the real deal? Here's where the rubber meets the road.

1. According to a report published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), a global switch to efficient lighting systems would trim the world's electricity bill by nearly one-tenth. The carbon dioxide emissions saved by such a switch would, it concludes, dwarf cuts so far achieved by adopting wind and solar power. According to Paul Waide, a senior policy analyst with the IEA and one of the report's authors, "19% of global electricity generation is taken for lighting— that's more than is produced by hydro or nuclear stations, and about the same that's produced from natural gas."

2. Studies by the Heschong Mahone Group found that sales increased 40% in stores with good natural light.

3. Through the use of day-lighting in design, builders can meet 25 to 33 percent of the necessary requirements to achieve a Silver LEED rating.

4. According to the federal Energy Star program: “If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.”

Getting Techie

Not content with the high level? Here's the nitty gritty.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are a big deal and we’ll be seeing them pop up in more and more places. Read more about what they are and how they work on Wikipedia’s excellent page.

A heliodon is a devise that allows architects, builders, and engineers to simulate the effects of sunlight on the lighting needs of building designs.

Color temperature is measured in kelvins, and brightness is measured in lumens and footcandles, and the effect of light on colored surfaces in measured in the Color Rendering Index.