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Energy Star Defined Changing the world starts with simple actions. When you replace light bulbs or entire light fixtures in your home with ones that have earned the government’s ENERGY STAR, you help preserve energy resources and reduce the risks of global warming while saving money and time buying and changing lights in your home. ENERGY STAR light bulbs provides bright, warm light but uses about 75% less energy than standard lighting, produce 75 percent less heat, and lasts up to 10 times longer. To save the most energy and money, replace your highest used fixtures or the light bulbs in them with energy star light bulbs. The five highest use fixtures in a home are typically the kitchen ceiling lights, the living or family room table and floor lamps, and outdoor porch or post lamp. ENERGY STAR qualified lighting fixtures and energy star light bulbs can be found at home improvement and hardware stores, lighting showrooms, and other retail stores, including on-line outlets. The smallest things can add up to a real difference. We encourage you to change out the light fixtures or bulbs at home that you use most with ENERGY STAR qualified models. If every American home replaced their 5 most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with energy star lightbulbs, we would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs, and together we would prevent the greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars. FACT: The energy used in the average home can be responsible for more than twice the greenhouse gas emissions of the average car. When you use less energy at home, you reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and help protect our environment from the risks of global climate change. If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR lightbulbs, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs: ENERGY STAR lightbulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime. Produce about 75 percent less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling. Are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors. How to Choose and Where to Use CFLs: ENERGY STAR bulb provide the greatest savings in fixtures that are on for a substantial amount of time each day. At a minimum, ENERGY STAR recommends installing energy star lightbulbs in fixtures that are used at least 15 minutes at a time or several hours per day. The best fixtures to use qualified CFLs in are usually found in the following areas of your home: family and living rooms kitchen dining room bedrooms outdoors How to Choose the Right Light: Matching the right energy star bulb to the right kind of fixture helps ensure that it will perform properly and last a long time. For example: Energy star lightbulbs perform best in open fixtures that allow airflow, such as table and floor lamps, wall sconces, pendants, and outdoor fixtures. For recessed fixtures, it is better to use a reflector energy star bulb than a spiral CFL since the design of the reflector evenly distributes the light down to your task area. If a light fixture is connected to a dimmer or three-way switch, you'll need to use a special ENERGY STAR lightbulb designed to work in these applications. Make sure to look for energy star lightbulbs that specify use with dimmers or three-way fixtures. Choose a energy star bulb that offers a shade of white light that works best for you. For example, while most energy star light bulbs provide warm or soft white light for your home, you could choose a cooler color for task lighting. To choose the ENERGY STAR bulb with the right amount of light, find a qualified CFL that is labeled as equivalent to the incandescent bulb you are replacing. Light bulb manufacturers include this information right on the product packaging to make it easy for consumers to choose the equivalent bulb. Common terms include "Soft White 60" or "60 Watt Replacement." You should also check the lumen rating to find the right CFL. The higher the lumen rating, the greater the light output.