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Plan the lighting: daylight first, then low-energy LED

Lighting is a small but daily load that runs when the sun is down and batteries are working hardest. Daylight in the day and efficient LEDs at night keep it small.

How

1. Use daylight first. DOE suggests tubular daylight devices or skylights for rooms with little natural light, and advises keeping skylights to about 5 percent of floor area in rooms with many windows and 15 percent in rooms with few.
2. Choose LEDs. DOE says LEDs use up to 90 percent less energy and last up to 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs.
3. Choose by lumens, not watts. ENERGY STAR gives about 450 lm to replace 40 W, 800 lm for 60 W, 1,100 lm for 75 W and 1,600 lm for 100 W bulbs.
4. Choose colour temperature by room: warm white (about 2,200 to 3,000 K) for living and bedrooms, neutral or cool white (about 3,500 to 4,100 K) for kitchens and workspaces, as the ENERGY STAR guide suggests.
5. Use task lights over worktops, desks and the workbench rather than bright ceiling lights everywhere.
6. Work out the daily lighting energy with the calculator below and add it to the load audit (power-1). Put the lights you need in a blackout on the battery-backed circuit.

Do these first

• power-1

Sources

1. Energy Saver: Energy-Efficient Lighting consumer guide. US Department of Energy, accessed 2026-11
2. Light Bulb Purchasing Guide. ENERGY STAR (US EPA and DOE), accessed 2026-11
3. Skylights. US Department of Energy, Energy Saver, accessed 2026-11
4. Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use. US Department of Energy, Energy Saver, accessed 2026-11

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