So what can these two concepts possibly have in common? The answer is in fact lighting, or more accurately ultra low energy lighting using the latest domestic LED light bulbs. Let’s see why this is…
Traditional incandescent lighting is massively wasteful of energy. For example a typical 50w halogen spot lamp wastes 45 of those watts as pure heat; only 5w ends up as light. And of course that energy has to come from somewhere and in our modern world that somewhere is almost certainly an oil or gas burning power station.
So then, each conventional light bulb burns ten times more fossil fuel than is really necessary and converts most of that into heat. This clearly doesn’t sit at all easily with efforts to reduce CO2 pollution and global warming. Especially when LED light technology is now easily available and can match that 50w halogen using just 5 watts of power.
But how specifically does sprucing up your kitchen fit into the equation? Well, kitchens are invariably the worst offenders when it comes to domestic lighting; they need to be quite brightly and uniformly lit and also tend to have a lot of individual lights for specific purposes (think under cabinet lights, hob lighting, island and table pendants, angled spots, etc). The kitchen is also the most used room in many homes and so all these lights blaze away, wasting energy and (more to the point for you) money.
You can take a hefty slice out of your lighting bills by for example replacing any mains powered halogen lamps with equivalent GU10 LED bulbs since these consume ten times less electricity and emit ten times less heat. Of course, in so doing you will be making a significant personal contribution to reducing the demands on limited fuel stocks and also cutting your own CO2 footprint.
So it’s a win-win – you not only save money but also help alleviate the damage done to the environment. But there’s more… you know those stunning kitchen lighting ideas you see in glossy magazines? Guess what most of them are using these days to get some of those effects? Yep, high quality LED lights.
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