Overall, around 8% of a home’s energy bill is generated by lighting. Reducing your
lighting expenditures is perhaps one of the simplest ways to lower your home’s
costs and save energy.

By replacing a traditional incandescent bulb with one of the new compact fluorescents,
your savings were amount to about €4 per year. That is for EACH bulb. Over the course
of a year, you’d save as much as €66 with every light bulb. Imagine the savings if you
replaced every bulb in your home!

Replacing a 50-watt halogen down lighter with a six-watt LED, your savings will be about €5 per year, which is about €85 over this type of bulb’s long lifespan.

Regardless of whether the home is rented or your own property, or whether you live in a house, apartment, or bungalow, significant savings are to be had by making some relatively small changes in your lighting, especially by installing the new energy-saving light bulbs and sources. Many modern home combine standard light fixtures and halogen down lighters or spotlights/track lighting, especially in the kitchen and bath, both of which have energy- efficient alternatives, including:

• Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs).
  These bulbs are what most people refer to as “energy-efficient” light bulbs. One way to
  use CFLs to save money on your lighting bill is to use them for general lighting purposes
  throughout the home. CFLs are available almost everywhere, and their higher initial
  price is immediately offset and surpassed by the serious electricity savings they bring.
• Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).
  These light sources are newer ways to light the home. They are more efficient than even
  CFLs, and they are ideal for replacing energy-hungry halogen down lighters. They do
  cost more than CFLs, but they last longer, saving more money in the long run.

Beyond replacing light bulbs, one of the easiest (and most common-sense) methods to bring the
light bill down is by simply turning off the lights when you don’t need them. Even if you only leave
the room for a few minutes, those few minutes the light is off saves money.

Use the Lights Less
All too often we act out of habit and flip the light on in a room when we really don’t need it, such
as if it’s daytime and the room has good natural lighting, or using more light sources than are
actually needed. If you aren’t reading or doing a task that requires bright illumination, you don’t
need an overhead light as well as a table lamp, for example. The message is simple: turn off the
lights if you don’t need them. Here are some other helpful hints:

• ALWAYS switch off the lights when you leave the room.
• The majority of light bulb types endure longer if they aren’t repeatedly switched off and on all
  day long—however, you will not save any money at all by leaving a light on constantly in the
  hopes that it will last longer. Just turn the light off when it’s not needed.
• Try to arrange your light switches so that they are easy to reach to turn them off. The wiring for
  many homes is set up so that one can switch on the light for the landing at the bottom or top of a
  set of stairs; use that feature, so you’re not tempted to always leave the light on for use later.
• Install a motion sensor for your external lights. This is much cheaper than simply leaving the
  lights burning all the time, and it is actually a burglary deterrent. The overall effect will lower
  your light bill. You can also put them on a timer.
• Always choose the proper light source for what you need. Watching telly doesn’t need much lighting
  —a low-level background light will suffice, if you need anything at all. While reading you need a bright
  local light, such as a desk or reading lamp.
• Try to have a variety of light choices in a room, with separate switches for each, making it easier to
  achieve the level of lighting you want or need at any given time. You will also save more energy
  overall by installing a dimmer switch.

Turn Off the Standby
On average; households in Ireland spend about €42 per year powering appliances that
have been left in standby mode. Standby is when an appliance isn’t actively being used,
and although the appliance uses less power in standby mode than in active use, it still
draws power. The clock display on your microwave is an example of this.

Additionally, low-level energy consuming devices that are left on constantly (modems,  routers, digital TV boxes, cordless phones, etc.) all add up to increase your energy bill.  These aren’t things we would normally think to turn off, but they do make a difference. For example, your broadband modem or router can use at much as €9 per year alone!

Luckily, there are many Energy Saving Trust Recommended products, which will help lower the level of standby energy consumption in your home. One such item is called a standby saver, which allows you to turn off all your appliances on standby quickly and easily, all at once, without having to unplug anything.

New regulations stipulate that all electronics sold in the EU after 2010 can’t have standby
power consumption greater than 1W, meaning that in the future this won’t be such a big
concern for individual items. However, at the same time as the consumption of individual
devices is going down, families are filling their homes with more electronic devices! This
means that everyone should pay attention to the items in their homes that use standby
power.

Size Does Matter: the Most Energy-Efficient Products are the Smaller Ones
The energy rating labels on new appliances are usually given based on size categories,
with the idea being to enable consumers the ability to compare between two or more
similarly-sized items.

What this translates into is that two appliances of different sizes with the same energy
efficiency rating might have very different energy consumption. For example, am 180-litre
refrigerator with an A+rating might only cost around €44 per year to run, where a bigger
525 litre refrigerator with the same rating might cost €59 or more to run per year.

When you’re trying to save on energy costs, it’s best to search for products with the best
energy efficiency rating for the size category you will need.

What about Old Appliance Disposal?
Manufacturing electronics and appliances consumes a lot of energy and uses a lot of valuable
materials, even precious metals such as silver or gold. Some items contain harmful chemicals
such as lead or mercury. These substances could potentially get into the environment if not
disposed of properly, endangering everything from the water supply to the plants, animals,
and people in the area.

Any items bearing the wheelie bin with a cross logo shouldn’t be disposed of with the rest of
your general household rubbish. Many common household items fall into this category,
including large white goods and energy-saver light bulbs. When waste electrical items are
kept separate from other garbage, any dangerous substances will be removed and properly
disposed of or recycled, instead of having them sent to a landfill.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Disposal
Bear in mind that when you’re ready to buy a new electrical appliance, the retail store is
obligated by law to either:

• Take your old appliance free of charge in the store
• Inform you of a location where they can have the appliance recycled at no cost to them

Several retailers do have collection of old appliances from the home, but they aren’t required to
do this. You can also take your old items to the closest WEEE recycling centre, or request the
local authority collect any bulky items, although some may charge for performing this service.