Living Room (EE)

Whilst the cost of lighting your home is relatively small, installing energy efficient lightbulbs is one of the easiest and cheapest energy saving measures you can take. LEDs are the main type of lightbulb sold in the UK- they last longer and use less electricity- but some people still have older bulbs in their home. It may be worth replacing any incandescent, halogen and CFL bulbs that you are using as LED versions are much more efficient.

When buying LED bulbs, you may need to think about how bright you want them to be, the colour of the bulb (warm/more yellow or cool/brighter white) and whether you need them to be dimmable. Check the level of lumens on the light that you buy. Traditional bulbs used watts to indicate brightness, but this measured power consumption rather than light emitted. LED bulbs use lumens to indicate brightness: an old 15w bulb is equivalent to 140 lumens; 60w to 800 lumens, and 100w to 1520 lumens.

Free Switch off lights when you leave a room to save electricity, use lamps or smaller lights for parts of a room, and use sensors or timers for outdoor lights, so they are only on when you need them.

£ LED bulbs are relatively cheap to buy.

££ You may need to hire an electrician if you need a light fitting changed or updated to take LED lights.

Check out the Good Home Lincs pages on Finding Trusted Tradespeople

The Energy Saving Trust has information on Energy saving light bulbs and lighting