While residential lighting consumes a lot of energy—15 percent of home use—it’s also a great place to start saving it. In the minds of many consumers, compact fluorescent lamps have become a first line of defense against global climate change, and CEE is helping members take advantage of this trend by looking at both immediate opportunities and those a little further out.

Inspired by the popularity of compact fluorescents (CFL) and the promise of solid state lighting, CEE formed a working group of members, manufacturers, and retailers at the September 2006 Industry Partner Meeting. Over the past year, this group has worked hard to develop a long-term energy savings goal for residential lighting. This activity has enabled the group to uncover industry perspectives and to form common assumptions about how the market will develop. In August 2007 the group agreed on a shared goal of reducing residential lighting energy use 50 percent by 2020.

The baseline estimate for residential lighting electricity use is 1.29 kWh/sq. ft., and the target is 0.645 kWh/sq. ft. Using data available from the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Census Bureau, CEE helped program members establish intermediate targets as well.

Establishing intermediate targets is necessary for measuring progress, but meeting those goals is a different matter. With CEE’s help, the working group is exploring ways to encourage their customers to make efficient purchases. To aid this goal, CEE has created a list of prioritized products and applications for each of the three time periods. In the short term (until 2011), for example, the emphasis will be on promoting several types of ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs (spiral, covered, R-lamps, 3-way, and dimming) and fixtures (outdoor, recessed, and linear). Once it becomes eligible for ENERGY STAR, solid state lighting will be included as well.

To add further value, CEE sees a need to make the vision statement more detailed and actionable. It has proposed four subcommittees to support work on short term priorities that will enable the group to meet its goals. The first will create a new name for CFL lamps that is easy enough for consumers to understand that it leads to increased sales of screw-based and dedicated (pin or GU-24) compact fluorescent lighting. The second subcommittee is developing common messaging for all stakeholders to use on the key issues of features and benefits of efficient lighting, along with ways to explain mercury content and recycling. The third will focus on tracking residential lighting energy use over time. Lastly, a subcommittee will identify a best practice approach to promoting outdoor light fixtures that will encourage members to adopt it in their programs.

Residential lighting programs are lucky to have so many consumers displaying an active interest in energy efficient products. By working with CEE, they are making the most of that development, and through open dialog and active listening to manufacturers and retailers, have designed a vision for achieving even greater savings over the next twelve years. For more information, contact Rebecca Foster at rfoster@cee1.org.

[ back to top ]