Make your Home Green

Timers and other energy saving lighting tips for any home

Cutting energy use is a step in the right direction for those who want eco-friendly homes. Timers and other light saving devices can conserve energy in the home very easily.

First, do an energy use audit of the home. Identify the things in your home that get left on. Despite your best intentions, things like closet and bathroom lights and fans can get left on. Using a timer on these can help cut your energy use. Once you have identified all the lights in your home that normally get left on by accident, determine which ones that you could control with a timer. Spaces that you enter and then exit constantly are the first places to start such as hallways.

Place outlet timers like the one above on things like box fans that you only need to run certain hours. These work well on things like electronics or decor that you only enjoy certain times of the day, and on lamps that you only need on at certain hours. You can use a wall socket mounted digital or rotary timer to turn your bedside lamp on when you wake up and then turn off just after you leave for work. Use permanent wall timers, for closet lights, bathroom fans, utility closets and similar lights. When installing wall switch timers, make sure you turn off the breaker. If you are not familiar with replacing switches, have a trained electrician do it in order to avoid injury or mistakes. You will quickly become accustomed to pushing wall timers for the time you need to have the lights on in a particular room. Most of the push button timers start from ten minutes for one push, and end at sixty minutes for four pushes. A fifth time turns it off. There are single push light timers that go off after an amount of time you choose when setting them up. These work well for lights you wish to leave on for a good period of time, such as bedroom lights.

After you have replaced all of the switches that you can with timers then replace your light bulbs with compact fluorescents, LEDs, or any green light source. Remember to turn off the lights when not in use. Show everyone in the home how to use wall timers to control lights and ask them to turn off all lights that have regular switches. After you make these simple changes you’ll notice a big savings in energy.

There are other measures to conserve energy. Motion-detecting light bulbs are being sold now, that fit in common fixtures. Consider adding a programmable thermostat to cut your central air unit off during the hours you are away. Use daylight whenever possible through skylights or windows. The possibilities are endless.

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