Energy savings with lighting

Electric lighting can account for as much as 20 percent of your total home energy budget.

One no-cost way to save energy on your lighting is to turn off the lights whenever you are not in a room. There is a MYTH that turning a light off then on again uses more electricity than just leaving the light on. The TRUTH is that the amount of extra electricity used during the first second of turning on a light is so tiny that any amount of time the light is off beyond a few seconds will save electricity.

You also can save energy and money buy using lower wattage light bulbs where possible. To save even more you can replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Find out more about the benefits and limitations of CFLs.