Residential Wind Power

The ability to produce your own electricity through renewable resources is a wonderful feeling.  Not only are you helping out the environment, you are also helping out your bank balance by reducing your need to buy electricity from the utility company.

Having an environmental conscious is all well and good but before you go and install your brand new wind turbine or solar panel you should look at your current energy use and see where you can reduce your bill.  The following list outlines different methods you could save electricity and save money through lighting.

1) Turn off the light when you leave a room

This may sound ridiculously simple but it amazes me how many people leave ten or fifteen lights on in different areas of their house when they only need to use one or two.  Why does you bedroom light need to be left on when you are on the couch watching television? By using two 60w lights instead of ten you save 480w each hour or over 11.5Kw every day.

2) Switch to energy efficient lighting

Last year the Australian government passed a bill to ban sales of your every day incandescent light bulb.  These light bulbs have been used for years to light our nights however the design of the incandescent light bulb has one major flaw - it chews through electricity.  By switching your light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs you can save up to 52w each hour and still produce the same amount of light.

Compact Fluorescent light bulbs come in a variety of shapes, power ranges and light colors.  Power consumption starts at as low as 8w per hour and the only difference you will notice is in your power bill!  In am writing this right now under a 8w compact fluorescent light bulb and the light is superb.  These lights should be available at your local hardware store and fit into most sockets.

3) Remove Halogen Lighting

Halogen down lights are common place in many new and renovated homes as they look really sweet.  Sitting flush with the ceiling and emitting a nice amount of light you can see why they are so popular - until you get your utility bill.  The problem with halogen down lights is that people are fitting four, eight and even ten of the lamps to light a room where just one standard incandescent light bulb would do.  At around 50w per hour for each of the lamps you can see why they are bad news.

Think of it like this, by replacing one 60w incandescent light bulb with four 50w halogen lamps you are using 140w more each and every hour to light the same space.

4) Install a sky light

Why use a light bulb and electricity to brighten up a room during the day when you could use the light from the sun for free?  Granted you have to install the sky light at a cost however during the day you will have enough light from the sun to brighten the whole room and it won’t cost you a cent after installation.

There you have it, my tips on saving electricity through lighting.  You don’t need to be producing your own renewable energy to get started with these tips but when you do decide to install that 1Kw wind turbine you can be sure that your lighting isn’t going to be draining all of the juice!