Managers of utilities and power grids in America are learning that the best way to reduce carbon emissions and improve efficiency is by having people change their light bulbs. The nation’s largest electricity grid, which serves more than sixty one million customers from Washington to Chicago, is revising its demand forecasts after recognizing that better lighting has undercut its projections.
According to the U.S. Energy Department and as reported by Bloomberg, swapping incandescent light bulbs for lamps containing light emitting diodes, or LEDs, would save enough electricity to power twenty million American homes. According to consultant Wood MacKenzie, Americans have done more to reduce carbon emissions by switching bulbs, upgrading washing machines and air conditioners than through increased use of solar, wind and natural gas.
Lighting accounts for about five percent of a home’s energy budget and switching to more efficient bulbs represents one of the fastest ways to reduce those costs. LEDs use seventy five to eighty percent less energy than incandescents and last twenty five times longer. LEDs will account for eighty three percent of the lighting market by twenty twenty and almost all of it ten years after that.
