The leading cause of poor lighting, household waste, and high electricity bills in older homes is lighting fixtures. Whether it is late at night and the sun has set hours ago or it is a stormy day and it is too dark to keep the lights off, you are going to turn the lights on, but you have to pay more for your electricity bill. The older light fixtures have outdated technology that is hard to recycle.
What option do you have? The best option s switching our home lighting to a more sustainable method. Your room can be well-lit without having to buy bulbs that are hard to recycle and bad for the environment. Below are some tips that are going to help you.
Look for fixtures that are made using recycled components or even make them yourself
When you go shopping for new fixtures, look for the ones that use recycled components. There is also the option of making your own lamps. The glass bottle that you cannot recycle can make a beautiful table lamp and it is going to add some color to your lighting. You should get a lamp socket and then drill holes that the cords are going to pass through.
Driftwood can become a great dining room fixture. You can make a great fixture by adding hanging lights to the driftwood. You are going to need hanging lights and a good way of attaching them. There are many ideas on DIY websites and Pinterest that will help you turn unused items into great light fixtures and stunning lamps.
Creating an open floor plan
When there are fewer walls, the natural lighting is going to travel farther. Opening things up by taking out a few walls. If you have a wall between your dining room and kitchen that isn’t a support wall, consider removing it. You don’t have to take all of it out, you can just make a pass-through or reduce it to a half-wall that is going to let light enter the kitchen from the dining room’s large windows or patio doors.
People are choosing open floor plans and they have the kitchen, dining room, family, or living room open to each other. Light from the doors and windows flows in and they aren’t blocked by walls. The open floor plan is also good because the family can easily chat openly no matter which room they are in. Someone is not going to feel alone cooking in the kitchen when there are other people in the living room.
Repainting dark rooms
You might love having dark paint on your walls, but they are known to absorb light. Light colors reflect light. When your walls have light paint colors, the light is going to bounce to another area of the room. it is a good idea to consider environmentally-friendly paints that don’t have latex or VOC.
Painting the walls with light colors doesn’t mean white. Some good options include guacamole green, a pale yellow, robin’s egg blue, cream, and light gray. These options are good because they reflect light and also give you the chance of embracing some color. Accents will make your room pop. Flowering houseplants, colorful furnishings, and paintings are going to bring color to your home without going overboard.
Don’t block the sun
It is important to have privacy, but if your shades are always drawn, it becomes hard for natural light to enter. Don’t use heavy curtains that are going to keep lights out. Open the blinds or shades so that sunlight can enter your home.
If you are concerned about privacy, a good option is a window film that is going to let the light through but is hard for people to see inside. If someone tries to peek in, the window is going to look frosted, and the only thing they can see is blurred shapes. This is something you can easily do yourself. Start by washing the window, then trim the film so it fits the area, then peel and stick the film to the window.
Another option is blinds with slats and then angle them so you don’t have to shut them all of the ways but keep others from seeing inside. You can easily install the blinds by yourself and they come in bamboo, fabric, recycled wood, or vinyl. The hardest one to keep clean is fabric which needs to be one of the factors when deciding the right option for you.
A good option for maintaining your privacy without blocking sunlight is to install electronic window blinds offering top-down, bottom-up technology. The top of the blind is lowered so that the lower half of your window remains blocked. Lift the blind from the bottom to the top if you want to expose the full window. If a person wants to see the inside of your home, they have to use a ladder. It is a good idea to choose those made from sustainable materials like recycled wood and bamboo.
Upgrade to LED Fixtures
CDM2 recommend you choose LED fixtures when upgrading your home lighting. An electrician is going to help you with this. It is easier to do it yourself if you are comfortable with minor installation work and you know what you are doing. Choose LED fixtures and upgrade the older ones.
Remove CFL or incandescent bulbs from your lamps and light fixtures and replace them with LED bulbs. LED bulbs are cheap these days and they will go a long way in helping you lower your electricity bill. Check out LED bulbs on EnergyStar.gov then see whether there are energy-efficiency rebates available for you. You might end up finding rebates in your areas that will bring down the cost of the bulbs to less than a dollar.
Make an effort of cleaning the bulbs every month. When you remove dust, it helps in preventing grime and dust from filtering light. The room will be brighter and there won’t be a burnt-dust smell when they have been running for a couple of hours. Clean the covers on vacuum lampshades and ceiling lamps at the same time.