How do
LED light bulbs compare to incandescent bulbs? A regular 40 Watt incandescent bulb burns through a lot more energy than it needs to produce the light you see. Remember the Easy Bake Ovens that use incandescent bulbs to bake brownies? A large percentage of the energy that goes into a 40 Watt bulb is wasted as heat - great for toy ovens but not so great for conserving electricity and saving money. LED light bulbs, on the other hand, generate very little heat. They transfer most of their energy into light.
The latest LED light bulbs now produce about the same amount of light per watt as compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL). However, unlike incandescent bulbs and CFLs, which splash light in all directions, LED bulbs are directional. They drive their light in one direction so that you have light exactly where you want it. This directional lighting equals savings in yet another fashion. LEDs don’t waste light (energy) on areas you don’t need illuminated so they make the perfect task light.
LED bulbs are designed to fit standard bases, range from 0.85 to 7.3 watts. In addition to low wattage you get the bonus of long life and energy efficiency. This adds up to a 90% savings over standard bulbs. Starry Night Lights can help you make the switch to LED lights.
Energy Star wants to change the world, one light bulb at a time and invites you to join in! 2008 marks the launch of a new campaign for Energy Star called ‘Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR’. The new campaign is designed to build off of the success of Energy Star’s former campaign ‘Change a Light , which led to a little less than one and a half million pledges to replace old lights with Energy Star approved lights. Ultimately, the campaign pledge, saved up to 1.3 billion kWh of energy in addition to about $127 million in energy costs!
The 2008 campaign is meant to exceed the success of the former campaign. The campaign’s main target is to fight against global warming by reducing the amounts of energy spent at home and work. The 2008 campaign begins on Earth Day, there are several ways for partners to get involved. These ways include:promoting the pledge, collecting real-life energy saving stories and hosting a campaign event.
Promoting the Pledge:
- Support the pledge by pushing individuals and organizations to find ways to save energy and in turn to fight global warming and by motivating employees, customers to take action.
- Help collect stories of individuals and companies who have made steps to improve the energy situation and post them on energystar.gov, to help encourage others to take similar steps.
Starry Night Lights works hard to ensure that one can choose, both interesting and economically friendly lighting. It is our hope that individuals will consider the negative consequences that certain lighting options have on the environment and will instead pick responsible options when lighting their homes. In order to give our customers as many options as possible, we offer many forms of lighting from many different brands. These brands include: GlareBuster, Justice Design, LSI Lighting Solutions, Sea Gull Lighting, as well as:
For all the brands sold by Starry Night Lights please go to the ‘lighting by brand’ section on our webpage.
New and modern forms of lighting are one of the greatest and cheapest ways to give your home a ‘face-lift’. Interesting lighting serves as an excellent way to draw attention to your home, porch and garden. Also, with products purchased from Starry Night Lights, you are receiving efficient and sky friendly lighting. As a result, feel free to ‘lighten-up’ your home with Starry Night Lights forms of lighting and be guaranteed both cool and environmentally safe lighting.
The theme of ‘going green’ has swept across the United States, as both companies and individuals are becoming more environmentally friendly, by going green. In fact, going green has even become somewhat popular as universities and companies encourage their employees to become more creative in ways that encourage going green.
There are many ways to ‘go green’, and they all are designed to regulate consumption and the way that individuals use energy. One such example is the push to go green with energy and electricity. Individuals are now being encouraged to:
- Unplug plugs, such as phone charges, lamps, etc. from walls. (Even products that have a ‘stand-by’ option are still using electricity)
- Make sure all unused lights are turned OFF
- Use a power strip, which can be turned off at night, this way one will not need to unplug and re-plug items to save energy
- Use natural ways of heating and cooling your home. Open windows before afternoon heat, use curtains during the warmest parts of the day, use fans, etc.
Lighting, is another subject were going green is being strongly pushed, especially because of the great amounts of energy wasted used when lighting. Here are some tips to saving money and energy when lighting your home:
- Make sure that your outdoor lights are only on when they are being used, motion sensors will help in this endeavor
Unfortunately, the statistics for the amount of energy Americans consume is far greater than the rest of the world. Americans often think that these resources will continue forever, but they will not. This is largely the result of the fact that a great deal of American energy is from nonrenewable resources. Therefore, we as Americans need to lessen our dependency on these nonrenewable resources. We can do this by using renewable resources like wind and sun, but we also need to reduce the amount of energy we use and consume.
Important Statistics to Consider:
* Of all the energy used in the United States, 72% is used by buildings
* The energy of the United States is 98% made up of non-renewable resources
As the years go by, the sky becomes brighter and brighter and it now gives off a glow which makes it almost impossible to see the stars, planets and other treasure of the night. This is the effect of light pollution, which is now considered to be as dangerous as the many other forms of pollution. Light pollution keeps expanding as cities grow and urbanization increases, it has become difficult even in rural areas to see the stars because of the growing effect of light pollution.
The International Dark-Sky Association has made it its mission to reduce light pollution around the world. Such cities as Quebec in Canada have made efforts to reduce the amount of aimless light that shines up into the sky. Thus they have been highly commended by the International Dark-Sky Association. The International Dark-Sky Association measures the amount of light pollution emitted by cities all over the world. Quebec is at a level 3 (relatively low), while the city of New York is ranked at a 9 (relatively high).
The International Dark-Sky Association has pushed for legislation which would regulate the amount of light pollution and wasted energy, in order to conserve energy and stop aimless and wasteful light, shining into the night sky. Such places as parking lots, malls and even homes, have lights shining directly up into the sky, even though no one is benefiting from the light. Thus, the International Dark-Sky Association and Starry Night Lights seek to reduce the amount of light pollution being emitted into the sky and hope to stop useless light shining into the night sky. Starry Night Lights offers individuals energy efficient and night friendly lighting. Starry Night Lights lights are designed not to shine up into the sky (ex. wall scones), and light only the areas that need to be lit (ex. area lighting). This way one can enjoy the night and keep their light from aimlessly shining into neighbors homes and into the dark night.
The loss of the dark night sky has had strong consequences on the ability and opportunity to see the Milky Way in the night sky. Just as light pollution has kept many stars out of view, similar effects have made the Milky Way difficult to impossible for most to see. The Milky Way, our home galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy, which means that its center is bar-shaped, and consists of millions of stars. Though there are many galaxies in our universe, the planet Earth is part of the Milky Way galaxy, making this galaxy particularly special. The Milky is visible from Earth and appears as a ‘band of light’ in the night sky. It has been this view which has made the Milky Way grand and unique. Unfortunately light pollution is clouding our ability to view the Milky Way in its full glory.
According to many astronomers a good deal of the world’s population (2/3 of Americans) already cannot see the Milky Way, which becomes visible during summer months. This is the result of light pollution, caused by excessive outdoor lighting, during night time hours. The lighting comes from various sources, such as: corporate buildings, stores, homes, street lights and so forth.
If the exterior lighting situation does not improve, it is possible that most of the ‘developed’ world will will lose the opportunity to look up into the night sky and its multitude of stars, comets, planets and, of couse, the Milky Way. In fact, most urban dwellers can see little more than a few dozen of the literally thousands that should be visible. However, left unchecked, this problem could even spread to areas that are less populated. This is why we at Starry Night Lights are fighting for the health and preservation of the night sky, by providing ‘dark sky friendly’ lighting. Our lights are designed to be energy efficient and to only shine down, where the light is needed. This way we can all enjoy the glory of the night sky.
The most promising light technology for the future seems to be LEDs (Light-emitting diodes). LEDs are more energy efficient than both traditional bulbs and CFLs because they have lower power consumption and a very long lifetime.
LED light bulbs are semiconductors, just like the chips in your computer. These semiconductors emit energy in the form of photons of light. LEDs have come a very long way since they were invented in the 1960s. LED lamps have been used for decades in the form of indicator lights on electronic products. Now, these LED lamps light bulbs have advanced to the point where they produce enough light for household and commercial applications. LEDs are extremely energy efficient and have lifetimes ranging from 50,000 hours to 100,000 hours. LED light bulbs are the perfect complement to your collection energy efficient lighting products.
LED light bulbs can not replace your typical light bulbs; they are most appropriate when you need powerful directional lighting such as flood or spot lighting. It is also suggested that they not be used with dimmers, as this will reduce their life.
“You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself”
- Nelson Mandela
Starry Night Lights is dedicated to improving the quality of our night sky, by providing lighting that reduces light pollution, and allows us to enjoy the beauty of our night. It is our belief that by using more efficient and environmentally friendly light bulbs, one will both improve the environment and save money. We also encourage individuals to choose lighting that will not have negative consequence on close neighbors or on wildlife. In fact, we offer motion sensitive lighting options which offer a very sensible way to preserve energy and money.
Starry Night Lights offer many different forms of lighting that can help one take a step in lighting their home with sky and neighbor friendly lighting. These many forms include:
Each of these systems of lighting, are designed to give light only where it is needed. They are also designed in a way to ensure that the darkness of the night is not compromised, but yet they still serve as excellent and useful lighting. Starry Night Lights also seeks to incorperate as many different designs and styles as possible, into our lighting systems. This way one can protect the environment, and have up-to-date appliances.
Starry Night Lights wants to encourage you to take steps to reduce global warming. It is this reason, and our love for our environment and especially our night sky, which has lead us to support the use of environmentally friendly lighting systems and structures. We realize that taking steps to improve our environment can be difficult, but we also know that if people come together as a whole, we will greatly increase our chance of making a positive impact for the sake our environment. As a result, we have some basic steps that you can take to help lessen global warming.
Buy energy- efficient appliances- Though one may initially find energy- efficient appliances to be more expensive, they actually save you money in the long run. This is because one uses a lot less energy when using these appliances. By looking for products with the Energy Star label, one will be ensured the most efficient appliances.
Buy/ use compact fluorescent bulbs- Compact fluorescent light bulbs are more expensive than incandescent light bulbs, but they can last up to 10 times as long! They will lower the amount of energy you use, and save you about 15 dollars a year and by the time of their replacement, approximately 60 dollars. Best of all, you will be greatly reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.
Speak out- If we come together and push our government into becoming more economically conscious, we can move forward in passing legislation which could help lessen the impact of global warming. We must push for; cleaner cars and power plants, use of renewable recourses and more efficient appliances and the like. This way we can have a fair chance at fighting global warming.
Starry Night Lights is proud to announce its participation in the US Government’s Energy Star Lighting program. Given our focus on preserving the environment in general, and the night sky in particular, it only makes sense for us to participate in this program. Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy designed to help us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Results are already adding up. Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved enough energy in 2006 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 25 million cars — all while saving $14 billion on their utility bills.
Energy conservation related to outdoor lighting makes incredible sense. Lighting consumes roughly 25% of all the electricity produced in the US. If we can make major strides in conserving energy while lighting, this can add up incredibly fast. On top of energy saving light bulbs and light fixtures, home and business owners are encouraged to strongly consider installing motion sensors on all their exterior lights. Motion sensors can ensure that your outdoor lights are off the vast majority of the time and yet turn them on the instant they are needed. In many cases, homeowners can reduce their outdoor lighting bill by close to 99%. This is a huge savings that adds up day after day and year after year. Given that motion sensors start around $60, you can pay for their purchase with just a few months of reduced utility bills. After that, the savings continue year after year after year.
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