Go Green With Energy Efficient Patio Deck Lights and Save Money and Energy

There are many different types of energy efficient patio deck railing lights available today. In times of economic turmoil and utility costs that are resulting in many people losing their electricity, it is important to learn as much as you possibly can when it comes to energy efficient means of lighting.

This is especially true if you are seeking to light up your patio area, or the outside living area of your home. In this guide, I will share with you a couple of choices that you have when it comes to energy efficient patio deck railing lights.

The first choice that you have when it comes to energy efficient lighting for the outdoor deck area is the ever-popular solar lighting fixtures. You can purchase fixtures that are mounted in three to four inch to three to four foot intervals along the patio deck railing on top of the railing. You can also purchase the same type of lighting that is attached underneath the railing as well.

In addition to this, you can purchase solar lighting that is attached to hanging rods all along the length of the patio deck railing to light up the area. The sun provides the light that is reflected in the night hours, so you do not have to worry about the expense associated with utility costs.

The second choice that you have as far as energy efficient lighting is concerned for railings on a deck is LED rope lighting. This is a useful type of lighting that provides a large amount of lighting for cents on the dollar monthly! You can wrap the rope lights around the deck rails, or simply run them along the deck rails.

The choice is yours! Rope lighting typically comes encased in a weatherproof plastic that preserves the bulbs from weatherization. In addition to this, LED lighting has been determined to be highly versatile and durable. This means that you literally get more "bang for your buck" when it comes to efficiency!

The next choice that you have when it comes to energy efficient patio deck lighting is a combination between solar lighting and LED rope lighting - it is called solar LED rope lights! These lights work by the sun's energy that is stored during the day, and provides the ultimate amount of efficiency because there is no cost associated in running these types of patio lights! As you can see, you have many choices in energy efficient patio deck railing lights.

Daryl Plaza is a regular contributor to http://www.signatureoutdoorlighting.com/outdoor-patio-lighting.html SignatureOutdoorLighting.com website with resources and information for all your http://blog.worldvillage.com/recreation/outdoor_patio_lighting_what_choices_do_you_have_to_lighten_up_your_backyard.html patio deck lighting needs

Christmas LED Lights Will Help Save Energy and Look Fantastic This Season

Now that the summer is over, the holidays are coming faster than ever. School has started, Halloween is almost here and then Christmas holidays will soon be around the corner. Decorating for Christmas can be an amazing experience and can even help bring families together. Spending a day decorating the Christmas tree with the family can help bond parents and their children. Some people decorate more for the artistic creativity rather than for any bonding experience. There are a fantastic variety of holiday decorations for anyone's taste. Using Christmas LED lights is a fantastic way to save energy and money during this otherwise case-strapped season.

One of the most popular decorations for Christmas is to hang a wreath on the front door. Wreaths are also popular for other seasons and holidays, such as hanging a wreath of dried leaves and bare branches on the door for autumn. Decorating the outside of the house is an amazing idea to attract attention to your house and to bring the joy of the Christmas season to the front garden. Using energy saving decorations, such as Christmas LED lights, is a perfect way to add a touch of holiday spirit to the outdoors and indoors.

Some holiday decorators prefer synthetic trees over natural because the pine needles don't end up all over the floor. Other people will only decorate using natural pine trees for their homes. There are those who decorate every room for Christmas and others who just decorate the living room or kitchen. Individuals who are into the holiday spirit without all of the lore will find that decorating with simple coloured balls, snowflake decorations, and Christmas LED lights will be pleasantly sufficient.

Unfortunately, many people go into debt over Christmas. Decorating for Christmas should never put one in the position of going into debt. Obviously, decorating on a budget is a fantastic idea. Decorating with candles, old ornaments that are repainted and making use of everyday baskets and bowls that you already have are easy and fun ways to make your house gorgeous on a budget.

Roxy is a passionate home enthusiast who loves to enjoy the outdoors and the relaxing mood of her water features & pumps. Roxy works for UK water features, who specialise in finding the best christmas fairy lights as well as solar powered christmas lights and LED christmas tree lights in the UK. For more information, please view our christmas trees.

Making Your Home More Energy Efficient Easily

It is sometimes said that necessity is the mother of invention, it could also be argued that inventions become a later necessity by design. Energy efficiency in the home belongs to the latter and when you put all the pieces together, the picture is a bright, healthy and green one. Not just for the environment, but also for your wallet.

A few energy efficient light globes is the first step towards cutting down your energy use, and therefore your electricity bill, but there are always many more clever ways to achieve an efficient cut down in energy use. If building a house, build it so that the sun hits the rooms you want it to so it can be warm in winter and cool in summer. This way you are less tempted to use a heater or air conditioner.

Use L.E.D. lights when possible. These have an average life time of 11 years 4 months of continuous usage. Could you imagine waiting over a decade before having to replace your light globes? You might go one step further and install skylights so even the LED lights wont see use until night time.

Set up a solar panel to trickle charge a battery connected to some fans for extra air circulation. A minimal one time investment such as this might even negate the need for an air conditioner, depending on your climate and geographic region.

As you can see, just a few little changes here and there in your home which can be easy to do (except for the house position one, you have to get that one done earlier in the planning) could save you a small fortune on your electrical and heating bill. This means more money in your wallet, an energy efficient home and a fortunate side-effect of helping to keep the planet clean and healthy.

Martin Coleman is a freelance business writer and has over 17 years experience in computing as well as over 5 years in freelance writing. He loves to use words to help businesses gain new customers and increase profits. He can be reached at http://www.martincoleman.com.

Energy Efficient Lighting

Energy efficient lighting has two major benefits - it reduces the impact of our homes and businesses on the environment, and reduces our home energy costs.

Lighting is a big source of energy consumption and in many homes, lighting makes up about 10-15% of the electricity bills. The carbon dioxide created by the generation of this electricity is harmful to the planet so by switching to energy efficient light bulbs, the carbon emission is reduced along with the electricity bills.

The incandescent light bulb traditionally used to provide light in homes and offices are very inefficient and on average convert only 5% of the energy they receive into light. Similarly, fluorescent tubes used in commercial buildings tend to be inefficient also.

Various options exist for energy efficient lighting, including Compact Fluorescent Lights or CFLs. These are mini versions of the full-sized fluorescents and fit standard sockets in the home, giving off lighting that resembles that of incandescent light bulbs. Far more efficient and long-lasting compared to traditional bulbs, CFLs reduce lighting costs too.

LED, or Light Emitting Diode, light bulbs are gaining in popularity because of their small size and durable nature combined with efficiency. LEDs can replace both halogen and traditional bulbs, and manufacturers now "cluster" the small bulbs and include diffuser lenses giving a better spread of light. These energy efficient light bulbs fit most household lighting fixtures and last up to 10 times as long as CFLs and significantly longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. LEDs are solid too, making them less susceptible to knocks and breakages; and they remain cool with no heat build-up.

As energy efficient light bulbs use less energy and are a lot more efficient, energy bills for the home and office can be reduced by as much as 80%. A good investment, LED bulbs last a long time and do not need to be replaced often, saving money for the individual and also maintenance costs for companies as the bulbs need to be changed less frequently.

Bradley Electrical are Electricians in Rugby, Leamington Spa and Lutterworth who offer a 24hour call out service.

Energy Efficient Home Ideas

With energy prices on the rise, it is becoming increasingly important to cut costs and save money wherever possible. There exists a multitude of products and ideas designed to do just that. From reducing energy loss to increasing overall efficiency, there's room in any budget.

One of the easiest ways to increase a home's energy efficiency is to change it's lighting. A compact fluorescent lamp, or CFL, uses between one fifth and one third of the energy required to power an equivalent incandescent bulb. While a CFL can cost 3 to 10 times more than a similar incandescent bulb, they typically square the difference in about one month. One article suggests that, a home spending to change 30 fixtures can save between 0 and 00 over the lifetime of the CFLs (about 5 years.) For low-light applications, such as a reading lamp, LED bulbs can offer even greater efficiency. Most current models, however, don't emit nearly as much light as their counterparts, and tend to be directional in nature. This makes them impractical for everyday use. Where outdoor lighting is concerned, things like timers and motion detectors save money by switching lights off that aren't in use. Solar landscape lighting requires absolutely no outside energy source while adding an aesthetic appeal.

Water heating, on average, accounts for around 13% of utility bills. The quickest ways to reduce this cost include regulating how much hot water is used, adjusting the heater's temperature, and thoroughly insulating the heater itself. For greater savings over the long-term, it may make sense to install a more efficient heater. Solar water heaters save the most, as they get all of their energy from the Sun. This is a great option in locations that receive sufficient sunlight. Tankless "demand" water heaters pass water through heated coils, providing hot water as it's needed rather than storing it. This effectively eliminates the energy loss that occurs when stored hot water cools down on it's own. However, they are not always able to keep up with the high demand of some homes.

When you own a home, investing in energy efficiency is tantamount to investing in your own peace of mind. In financially uncertain times, those things of which one can be certain are more and more important for you, your family, and your way of life.

Edmund E. Taylor has researched and writes on a number of topics including solar energy, the green movement, renewable resources and recycling. His background is in teaching and higher education. For more of Edmund's articles on green energy, please visit PV Power, a supplier of residential and commercial solar power information.

The Pros and Cons of Low Energy LED Lighting

For most people, probably the biggest single factor against low energy LED lighting as a substitute for the soon-to-be-phased-out regular incandescent light bulb is the cost differential. There is no doubt that an LED equivalent light bulb (for example a 6w LED spotlight as a direct replacement for a 35w GU10 halogen lamp) is significantly more expensive than either the original or a CFL alternative.

There are however three important points to bear in mind about the higher price for low energy LEDs as compared to incandescent and energy saving CFL light bulbs.

First, the price difference reflects the fact that the use of LED for general purpose domestic lighting is still quite novel, though increasing manufacturing levels and consumer take-up will drive the price down dramatically once both come fully on stream over the coming months.

Second, and partially related to the observation above, is that the cost of LEDs drops by a factor of twenty over the course of each decade. This characteristic is reliably predicted by Haitz's Law (very similar to Moore's Law for computer chips and for similar reasons, principally because LEDs are, just like computer chips, pure electronic devices). Haitz also states that LED performance (amount of light per watt of electricity) increases tenfold over the same decade.

Third and perhaps most intriguing is the fact that as far as the cost of domestic lighting is concerned, the price of light bulbs is almost entirely irrelevant. It is an extraordinary yet easily provable fact that even if regular light bulbs were totally free and LED lights cost, let's say something outrageous like each, it would still be vastly more economical to purchase LED low energy lights.

The reason for this is simple: the cost of electrical lighting is the cost of the energy i.e. electricity. It matters not one jot what the actual light bulbs cost; it's what it costs to run them that really counts. Also, since LEDs last for tens of thousands of hours (in practice, decades of use) you only need to pay the purchase price once, unlike regular bulbs which last only upto two thousand hours or just over one year.

The second biggest gripe about low energy LED lighting is light levels and quality, or in technical parlance luminosity and light color.

The concern about luminosity stems largely from historical notions of LED lighting applications such as LED Christmas lights and pocket torches which are clearly not capable of providing anything close to useable domestic lighting. However, you could right now purchase one of the latest Sharp Zenigata LED series of light bulbs which is rated at 80 lumens per watt (measure of luminosity).

To understand what this means, consider that a standard 40w incandescent bulb delivers about 360 lumens and a 60w bulb about 540 lumens, which gives a ratio of 9 lumens per watt. Anything that offers greater than 25 lumens per watt can be classed as an energy saving light bulb. Zenigata LED light bulbs consume 6.7 watts and thus produce 6.7 * 80 lumens per watt which is 536 lumens, on a par with the standard 60w incandescent light bulb.

So you could, right now, replace all your 60w light bulbs with Zenigata LED light bulbs rated at 6.7 watts and consume 1/10th (or 90% less) electricity. And remember Haitz's Law? Because of performance improvements, eighteen months from now you should be able to obtain the same 60w worth of lighting from just 3 watts.

LED light, in common with CFLs, has tended to be a somewhat cool blue colour, whereas we are more accustomed to a warmer yellow white colour. This is something that is now commonly addressed with the use of colored phosphors (these do reduce luminosity but this is in turn compensated for by the ever increasing lumens per watt yields for LEDs).

The third factor that might be considered to weigh against low energy LED lighting is that the light emitted by an LED is intrinsically directional and doesn't scatter in all directions the way that incandescent and fluorescent lights do. This is actually quite acceptable in a spotlight, flood light or bright reading lamp, but it's not especially effective for emulating general ambient lighting such as a table lamp would provide. Though again, there are LED powered general lighting light bulbs becoming more commonly available that do a reasonable job here.

Two obvious plus points for low energy LED lighting are ease of retrofit and ecological credentials (other than simply saving energy).

LED lights are widely available for all common base fittings such as mains powered GU10 and 12v MR16 spotlights and the low energy standard base GU24 as well as regular bayonet mounts and Edison screw fittings. LED lights also don't suffer from the many inherent problems associated with CFLs such as: noticeably poor start-up times; reduced lifespan caused by frequent switching on and off; and bulky unattractive bulbs.

But perhaps one of the most widely known advantages of low energy LED lighting over energy saving CFL light bulbs is that they don't contain toxic mercury vapour or other unpleasant materials, and thus do not pose a serious health risk or require tiresome and expensive disposal procedures to protect the environment.

To sum up, the main perceived disadvantages of domestic energy saving LED lighting are cost and application (luminosity and color). Yet as we have seen, the cost of a light bulb is actually a red herring - the true cost of electrical lighting is the price of electricity and on this score ultra low energy LED lighting puts everything else, including energy saving CFLs, completely in the shade (pun intended).

As regards luminosity and light quality, LED lights on balance deliver a cleaner, sharper light than CFL light bulbs and offer far more flexibility in terms of color choice and brightness.

Finally, the biggest advantage that low energy domestic LED lighting has over its rivals is that the lighting industry itself regards domestic LED lighting as the future and can barely disguise its contempt for CFLs. Lighting giants such as Philips are on record as stating that they will not invest a single dollar further into CFLs and that their entire research and development efforts are now directed at domestic LED lighting technology.

Those who follow eco-technology trends are well aware that there is a world-wide phase-out of incandescent light bulbs already well underway and scheduled to complete within the next couple of years. Given international legislation to ban incandescent lighting and lack of support for the already dated and unloved CFL, it's near certain where the future of lighting lies - with low energy LED light. And as advantages go, I'd say that one's pretty compelling.

Find out more by reading the full article which explains what you need to know about low energy lighting in general and 12v LED lights and particular.

Megan's alter-ego KuleKat is interested in the defining features of our times (climate change, oil depletion, technology and so on) and what it all means and more importantly what you can do about it.