Smart use of lighting in one of the simplest ways you can reduce your household’s energy consumption, save money and help to protect the environment.
Turning lights off and making the best use of daylight are simple ways to save energy.  It is also smart to use the most efficient lighting option for the task.

Wattage (W) of a lighting product refers to the measure of energy input, or energy required for the light to come on - however, this is not a true measure of light.
Lumens (lm) is a measure of light output, or the actual intensity of the light that is produced.

The main types of household lamps or lights to choose from are - incandescent, fluorescent, halogen and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).  These lighting options vary in energy efficiency and suitability for different rooms and uses in your home.

Incandescent lamps
Incandescent lamps or bulbs have been the most commonly used light type of lighting.  While they are cheap to buy, they are relatively short lived (around 1000 hours) and extremely inefficient in their use of electricity.

Phase-out of incandescent lamps
In 2007 the Australian Government announced plans to phase-out inefficient lighting technologies where viable energy efficient alternatives exist.

Traditional pear-shaped incandescent lamps will be the first inefficient lighting technology to be phased-out.
For further information please refer the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts website at www.environment.gov.au.

Fluorescent Lamps
Fluorescent lamps produce minimal heat, are much more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs and generally last around 8,000 hours.
They are made up of two parts – a lamp and a starter.  The lamp has a special phosphor coating on the inside surface of the glass casing which gives off a visible glow when bombarded with ultraviolet light.  The ultraviolet light is created by passing electricity through a gas contained in the lamp.  The starter is required to convert household electricity to the voltage required to power the fluorescent lamp.
Modern fluorescent lamps come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colour tones. 
They are most suited to areas where lighting is required for long periods of time since they take a minute or two to reach their full brightness.
Frequent on/off switching can reduce their lifespan. However, if you leave a room for more than 10 minutes you should turn fluorescent lamps off.

Tubular fluorescent lamps can be straight or circular and are widely used in kitchen areas.  They are relatively cheap to buy compared to compact fluorescents.

Compact fluorescent lamps are ideally suited to areas of the home that require lighting for long periods of time. CFLs use a quarter of the electricity required by the incandescent lamps to produce the same amount of light and have a considerably longer life span of up to 8,000 hours or more.

Designed to fit into either bayonet or screw standard fittings they are available in a range of warm or cool colour temperatures.

Micro-fluorescent lamps are very energy efficient and can fit in a standard 240 volt downlight fitting. They can use up to 85% less energy than a halogen light.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) Lamps
For many years LEDs have been used in applications such as lighting displays in household appliances and traffic lights.  The use of LED lamps for general household lighting is an emerging technology with the number of products on the market growing rapidly.  

A LED lamp is made up of one or more semi-conducting devices and a “light bulb” shaped package.  The semi-conducting device produces light when electrical current flows through it.  The package includes heat-conducting materials and a lens to magnify the light.

One of the main benefits of LEDs is their potential very long life.  Good quality LED lamps claim to offer useful lifetimes of up to 50,000 hours.  LEDs usually do not fail like traditional lamps; instead the light output gets slowly dimmer over time.  The lifetime depends on a number of factors including LED quality, lamp design and operating environment. 

LEDs also have the benefit of very high energy efficiency levels that use up to 90% less energy than a halogen light.   As the technology improves they are expected to rival the most efficient white light sources in the coming years.

Lighting companies are developing LED lamps for direct replacement into bayonet, Edison screw and tubular fluorescent applications.

A current barrier for LEDs is the high initial purchase cost.  However, as the technology improves and demand increases these costs are expected to come down.

LED lamps are suited to applications where the long life and hence very low replacement and maintenance schedules are of most benefit.  They are also suited as directional light sources for portable desk lights or downlights.

Halogen lights
Due to the focusing effect of halogen lamps, they are not particularly suitable for large spaces, such as living rooms.  This is because multiple lamps would be required to provide an even distribution of light and require more energy to be used. Several manufacturers produce energy efficient halogen lamps that use 20 watts of electricity for applications that previously used 50 watts

For further information on lighting, see the Lighting brochure (PDF 1.4MB).