Stylish Energy Efficient Lighting for Better Photos, and much more #GELighting

We live in an old Victorian home.  It has lots of unique style that I love, but like most houses from the era, can be a bit of an energy pig.  Most of the windows have been changed out to energy efficient ones and insulation was blown in a couple years ago. Over the last year the my daughter and I’s bedrooms have each had ceiling fans installed.  My room did not have one before, and hers was undersized and ineffective at pushing air.  These changes have helped with the heating and cooling of this piggy, but that is just half the equation.

The electric bill dropped a bit, when most of the light bulbs were switched to energy efficient CFLs, while my husband was here, but more changes were needed.  The outdoor spot lights were never changed, and the newly installed ceiling fans came with incandescent bulbs.  Another issue was my ugly vintage kitchen ceiling light.  I guess it wouldn’t look so ugly to me, if it didn’t clash with the rest of the room so much, but it does.  It was also ineffective, when taking food pictures, which I take a good deal of.  I needed more light, and I needed more spectrum in the light, to get rid of the yellowish cast.

As part of a blogger project for GE Lighting,  I am making some changes to my household lighting, to save electricity and improve lighting function.  I changed out the old flood lights, for energy efficient outdoor rated CFL flood lights from GE.  Just this simple change of two bulbs is estimated to save me $18.69 in electric costs over the course of a year, more than double what it cost to replace them.   The savings are more impressive when you consider the savings over the lifetime of the bulbs, which will be more than $100.  Find out how much could you save by switching to energy efficient light bulbs. To save even more, grab the coupon off my sidebar (limited time offer).  The kitchen light fixture was also changed out and fitted with daylight bulbs.  This change will not reduce energy consumption, since we had a CFL in there already, and the light output was increased.  The change is both a practical & aesthetic improvement though. As you can see in the fixture above, I chose CFLs that encase the spiral tube in an outer glass shell.   I think they make a huge difference in the look of a fixture such as this, which has exposed bulbs.  I specifically wanted the bulbs exposed, so they would not be filtered, and perhaps lose some of their brightness, or have the light spectrum they cast altered. These are the specific light bulbs I used.  I have used GE Reveal light bulbs in the past for photo lighting, but could not find them without the spiral tube exposed, so I decided to go with their daylight bulbs.  I am pleased with the results.  Below is a quick shot I took of dinner that night.  I snapped it right on the ladder we used to install the light fixture with.  It has not been edited at all, and was quickly snapped on the fly.  With proper staging and some effort, I am confident I will be able to get some great shots under this light.  The white is crisp, and the 5 bulbs should soften shadows.

While my focus was on providing efficient outdoor lighting, and effective light for photographs,  GE has a great deal of energy smart lighting solutions.  Check out even more options in my Google+ shopping story.

Energy efficient night lights and 3-way CFL bulbs

Instant On CFL lights.

Dimmable CFL light bulbs from GE.

Making changes such as insulating your home well, installing efficient windows and ceiling fans, and switching to energy efficient lighting options can save you a good deal on your energy costs.  Shutting off lights when you leave rooms, installation of programmable thermostats and controlling the effect of the sun on your interior environment through thoughtful use of window shades or landscaping can also help.  These investments of money and attention, will repay you in multiples.

For more information, and to keep up to date on news and promotions from GE Lighting follow them on Twitter, as well as Facebook.

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and GE Lighting.  All experiences and opinions are my own.  #CBias #SocialFabric