Green Kitchen Trends Part 6 - Lighting
Lighting accounts for 5 to 10 percent of total electricity used in U.S. homes. The best way to reduce your power usage is to locate workspaces near windows or install more windows or skylights in order to take advantage of daylight. Tubular Skylights or Light Tubes capture natural sunlight from the rooftop and redirect it down a reflective tube into interior spaces inside your home. The tubing will fit between rafters and can be installed easily with little or no structural modification. At the ceiling level, an attractive diffuser spreads the light evenly throughout the room. Natural Lighting tubes bring warmth to difficult to light and often forgotten rooms and turn them into extraordinary spaces filled with pure, natural light.
If you do need extra lighting in the kitchen, then install individually controlled task lighting, such as under cabinet lighting or pendants over an island that will only illuminate the space that you need and now the whole room. Lastly, compact fluorescent bulbs should be installed because they use less energy for the same amount of light.