What is “Green” lighting?
Illuminata Lighting Design is committed to incorporating a “green” sensibility into lighting design? We are Certified Green Building Professionals, a Marin Green business, and a member of the northern California Chapter of the United States Green Building Council. Any step toward greater efficiency is a step toward embracing what we are calling “green”. Illuminata lighting is committed to being a leader in embracing these technologies and implementing them in our designs.
Why “green”?
- Dwindling resources
- Global warming
- Rise in energy costs
- It is everyone’s responsibility to do their part
We are continuing to use inefficient lighting for a few reasons.
- Habit
- Don’t believe the existing alternatives are viable
- Lack of awareness of new alternatives
- Need for warm, comfortable light
- Lighting needs that require intense focused light
The lighting industry is already providing us with more efficient alternatives that mimic the lighting quality and function that we currently enjoy.
Here are a few things you should know about “green” lighting alternatives.
Both fluorescent and LED lighting can now produce the same warm "color spectrum" as incandescent lighting.
- Fluorescent lighting is about 4 times more efficient than incandescent and last about 10 times as long.
- LED lighting has a similar efficiency as fluorescent lighting but have an extremely long life under optimum conditions, up to 50,000 hours.
- Fluorescent lighting, in general, cannot be focused for spotting objects but works wonderfully for indirect lighting.
- LED lamps in general do not have the brightness of incandescent lamps but improvements to the technology may soon conquer that limitation.
- Permlight, a California based manufacturer is now producing LED recessed trims that produce an equivalent of 65 watts of incandescent output but uses less that 15 watts.
- CFL’s (compact fluorescent lamps) are good replacements for basic functional fixtures such as lamps, exterior fixtures.
- Some CFL’s are dimmable with the right dimmer.
- CFL’s are being made as floodlights that can replace interior and exterior floodlights.
- There are lower energy alternatives to the halogen lamps used in most low voltage fixtures. Sylvania produces a MR16 lamp (used for most interior art lighting) that uses 25% less energy for the same light output.
