Four ways to improve the efficiency of the lighting in your home

With energy bills on the rise and global warming becoming an increasingly urgent concern, people are more eager than ever to streamline their energy consumption around the home. Fortunately, there are so many simple ways to reduce your energy usage and thus save you money whilst cutting your carbon footprint. One fifth of the average UK electricity bill goes towards lighting, highlighting how important it is to address our habits in this particular area. Here are four ways to improve the efficiency of your home’s lighting.

Natural light

One of the most effective ways to improve the efficiency of your home’s lighting system is to allow for more natural light to flow through. The more natural light you can let in, the less you’ll rely on artificial sources, saving you both energy and money. Whilst this will be more difficult depending on the time of year, there are several ways you can make your home appear naturally brighter.

Be sure to draw the curtains and blinds around the home during the day, and ensure that your windows are regularly cleaned to allow as much light in as possible. You can even include more shiny objects into your home’s décor, and use a light colour palette to help make your space feel brighter. Mirrors can also reflect light and make a space feel bigger.

Switch your lightbulbs

Switching out outdated light bulbs for newer, more efficient ones can make a big difference to your bills and energy wastage. Incandescent light bulbs convert only 10% of the energy they consume into light, with the rest being wasted as heat. Meanwhile, LED bulbs require far less energy to create the same amount of light, making them by far the more efficient option. It’s estimated that if every home in the UK made the switch, we could save up to 8 million tonnes of carbon emissions.

Smart tech

Smart technology is set to play a key role in helping households to better manage their energy consumption habits going forward. Technology is already being used to tell us how much energy is being used and on what, which helps to identify ways we can cut down on energy use.

Using smart lighting systems is an effective way to better control how we light our homes, and thus how much energy is being wasted. The lights can be controlled remotely via an app, meaning you’d be able to switch lights off when you’re not at home. No more coming home after work to find that the bedside lamp has been on all day.

Switch it off!

There really is no easier way to save energy when it comes to lighting than by switching them off. According to the Energy Saving Trust, the average household could save £20 a year by turning off the lights when not in use. As well as switching off the lights in a room you’re not using, consider how many lights you have turned on at the same time in rooms that you are. For example, if you have ceiling lights switched on, do you also need the lamp on as well?

Adopting these good habits will go a long way to improving the efficiency of your home’s lighting system, and hopefully help to keep energy bills down.