Efficient Lighting

A nice one-page overview of what current technologies are best for efficient lighting. From their introduction:

Incandescent lights are basically electric space heaters that give off light as a byproduct. They are VERY inefficient, wasting most of the power they consume as heat.

Since lights are one of the biggest power uses in a remote home, pay close attention to what kind you use. If you replace all of your lights with efficient versions, you may be able to get by with fewer expensive batteries and solar panels!

And the numbers:

• 32 watt T8 fluorescent--85 to 95 lumens/watt
• standard F40T12 cool white fluorescent--60-65 lumens/watt
• compact fluorescents--low 30's to low 60's lumens per watt, usually 48-60
• T3 tubular halogen--20 lumens/watt
• white LED--15-19 lumens/watt
• standard 100 watt incandescent--17 lumens/watt
• incandescent night light bulb (7w)--6 lumens/watt
• incandescent flashlight bulbs--dismal, less than 6 lumens/watt

The website goes into the methods of testing and why some of the numbers are different from what you would expect. Good stuff!