Home Lighting Control: An Eco-Conscious Choice
5 Ways Automated Lighting can Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Homeowners across the country and right here in Alpine, UT are looking for ways to go green. Smart home technology represents an opportunity to reduce your energy consumption without giving up any comfort, and home lighting control is a case in point. Incorporating the various tools and tricks that automated lighting offers make it easy to reduce your energy use month to month. To learn about five specific ways, continue reading.
See Also: Smart Home Automation Trends
Switch to LED Bulbs
One way to dramatically reduce your energy use right off the bat is by changing out your inefficient incandescent light bulbs for their LED counterparts that require one-sixth the energy. If you’re worried about the quality of light, you should know that LED lights are a versatile solution. Not only do you save energy, LED bulbs, coupled with home lighting control, allow you to adjust the intensity, color, and color temperature of each light source. That means you have the look and feel you desire without using excess energy.
Use Less Energy with Dimmers
Dimmers not only enhance the look and feel of your home, they also help you save energy. When you dim the light 50 percent, you are using about 50 percent less energy. Incorporating dimmers into your home lighting system means that you won’t be wasting energy on over-lit rooms. If you dim most lights in your home 20-30 percent, it probably won’t impact your daily activities, but can dramatically cut your energy use.
Waste Less with Occupancy Sensors
Speaking of only using the light you need; one common way to waste energy is leaving lights on in rooms the homeowner isn’t using. Rooms like bathrooms that are commonly used for short periods of time are the usual suspects. Adding occupancy sensors means that the light will be on when you enter the space and turn off after a period of time after you leave. Therefore, you won’t be wasting energy when no one needs the light.
Utilize Natural Light with Daylight Sensors
The sunlight offers homeowners an opportunity to use their lights less throughout the day. However, with traditional methods, it would be a lot of work to manually adjust your lights and shading in accordance with the time of day and the amount of available sunlight. Daylight sensors can track the amount of light in a given space and automatically adjust your lights and motorized shades. When the sun is out, the shades open up to let in the light, and dim or turn off the lights. When the sun goes down or there’s cloud cover, the lights brighten to maintain comfortable home lighting.
Set the Scene for Savings
Pre-programmed collections of light settings, or scenes, can help you establish eco-friendly lighting habits in your home. The best part is that it all happens automatically. For instance, a little after the time you typically leave for work, set an “Away” scene that turns off any lights you may have accidentally left on. You can use a similar scene that is ready to go a little after bedtime, so you aren’t wasting any energy while you sleep.
If you’re ready to go green--automatically--it might be time to give AMT Integration a call. We can install, fine-tune and educate you on your new home lighting control system Contact us today.
