Light Bulb Saver

Welcome to Light Bulb Saver

Choosing light bulb replacements for your home can be confusing. You may have noticed that the choices of light bulbs available have expanded and some of the older options you once relied on have disappeared. With lighting taking between 8 to 15% of the average household electricity spend; there are lots of options to reduce the amount of energy used for lighting while still providing the right light for your needs.

The Light Bulb Saver mobile app helps you calculate how much money you can save by replacing your current lights with energy efficient alternatives, and offers tips to help in designing effective and efficient lighting solutions for each room in your home.

The app also provides a useful table to convert the wattage of traditional incandescents and halogens into lumens, and provides information about the household lighting technologies available in Australia, along with other useful lighting information.

Light Bulb Saver is completely free and works without connecting to a mobile network.

The app was originally developed by the Swedish Energy Agency and has been customised for use in Australia by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science on behalf of the Equipment Energy Efficiency (E3) Program.

For more information about energy efficient lighting and the E3 program, visit www.energyrating.gov.au.

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Light Bulb Saver has four parts:

FIND YOUR LIGHT

This tool allows you to calculate how much you can save by replacing your current lights with energy efficient alternatives.

You can compare traditional incandescents, halogens and CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) technologies in a range of shapes, including omnidirectional (classic shape), directional (reflector/downlight), capsule and tubular fluorescent.

LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are the most efficient types of lighting on the market today, and so the app does not offer any replacement options.

LIGHTING YOUR HOME

Lighting should be planned to complement the lifestyle of the home. Consider the activities that occur in each room, the atmosphere you want to create, and the decorative elements that you want to emphasise.

Take a look through each room in this section to get some ideas about designing the lighting in your home.

CONVERT

We used to buy old fashioned incandescent bulbs by the amount of watts (power) they used. With energy efficient technologies now available, light bulbs now produce the same amount of light using far less power so it no longer makes sense to shop for Watts.

Using ‘lumens’ (lm) is now the way to choose the light you need. The more lumens, the more light.

The conversion table shows how many lumens a new light bulb should produce to deliver as much light as a traditional incandescent or directional halogen.

MORE INFORMATION

Find out more about the household lighting technologies available in Australia and view a glossary of terms and concepts. There’s also information about recycling, the environment, your consumer rights, what’s on the packaging, and, the developers of this app.