Energy Efficient Lighting Gallery / Tour / Tutorial or Video
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I am looking for some visuals to help design energy efficient lighting for a new home (and persuade others in the project!). Can anyone point me to some good resources for reviewing some options for the various types of lighting and rooms? I would like to see some good photos / video of installed lighting – ideally not focussed on the modern look, but something more traditional. Ideally it would be good to have the model and brands of the fixtures pictured. Are there any online design tools that allow one to play with the lighting options?
Thanks
Patrick
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Patrick,
I suggest you start here: IBACOS High-Performance Lighting Guide.
You might be especially interested in this page: Room-by-Room Designs.
Thanks - that is very useful!
Gotta say I find the IBACOS resource disappointing. Reads like an infomercial for the can light industry. This exact same phrase turns up on about every page: "The recessed lighting design, using recessed downlights (with clear reflectors), provides a subdued and elegant pattern of lighting with excellent glare control." Relying on can lights as baseline ambient is NOT an efficient lighting strategy.
i dont think IBACOS resource is helpful, i was expecting some videos or pictures. i hate reading this much long articles. i wish someone else will put some videos for guidance.
Lighting efficiency is mostly about what type of bulb you are using.
The standard traditional medium screw base bulb is called the A19. Bulb manufacturers are working hard to make affordable A19 LED bulbs that are more efficient than CFLs and last at least 25 years. So choose wisely, because you may be stuck with them for the rest of your life.
Here's a dimmable LED bulb that kicks out 80 lumens per watt for $10.95: http://www.amazon.com/G7-Power-G7A19W10-Omni-Directional-Dimmable/dp/B00AN1OQMO/ref=pd_cp_hi_3
With this bulb, you have an infinite selection of suitable traditional fixtures to choose from.
Forget about CFLs, they suck: http://greenbuildingindenver.blogspot.com/2012/01/cfls-suck-update.html
Any bulb you can buy now won't be available in a year, but the choices then will be even better. LED bulbs pay for themselves in a year or two with their evergy savings.
IKEA has some nicely designed LED lighting, but it's probably too modern for your taste.
Martin has a good article you can read for much more info, just remember the LED numbers improve every month: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/martin-s-10-rules-lighting
Downlighting such as recessed cans/pot-lights is way overdone, and results in lower efficacy due to glare. A combination of up-lighting (lighting coves, cabinet top fixtures, etc) and down lighting reduces glare, and provides better visual acuity at lower ambient light levels. (I'm personally a fan of dimmable ballast T5 & T8 fluorescents for this application, though dimmable LED options are becoming more available & affordable at comparable efficiency & longer lifecycle.)
Properly placed task lighting is also useful- and most under cabinet kitchen task lights are mis-installed, with the fixture placed at the wall facing out, adding glare and putting shadows on the work rather than placed toward the front edge of the cabinet facing the wall, putting the higher intensity light closer to the work, and letting the reflected light off the wall/backspash fill in the shadows.
There's a great deal of lighting design material available online at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting research Center website, for those willing to dig into making the lighting both efficient from a lumens per watt point of view, but more importantly, high efficacy from an acuity point of view at any luminous intensity. Start here:
http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/