Green Design: LED lighting gets practical

Swank up your bookshelves with LED lighting, via Little Nudge

You’ve got the Energy Star seal on your fridge and washing machine, you unplug appliances when they’re not in use, and you honor PG&E “smart days.” But what about your lighting? LEDs (light emitting diodes) use a fraction of the energy of traditional light bulbs, and they last a whole long longer.  If that’s not enough to convince you to green up your lighting, here’s one more reason to reconsider: LEDs don’t get hot. Which means less time up on the ladder, burning your fingers while unscrewing hot light bulbs.

Another LED advantage: You know that tinny, ringing sound your light bulb makes when it dies? That’s the broken filament rattling around inside the bulb. LEDs, which don’t have filaments, are more durable.

Apartment Therapy has a great post on 10 Unexpected Household uses for LED lighting, from planter pots to animal harnesses.

romantic over-the-bed LED lighting, via Apartment Therapy

While there are all sorts of designy things you can do with energy efficient LED lights, like backlighting your book shelves, my first foray into the world of the tiny diode was LED under cabinet lighting. In our kitchen, we have deep corner cabinets both above and below, with spaces that are very hard to see. My corner cabinets are where that overpriced and supposedly spectacular green curry sauce from Draeger’s, circa 2009, goes to die.

Solution: a kit of crown LED lights . Being tool-challenged, I was going to hire someone from Task Rabbit to come over to install the lights, but before I got around to it, my sister showed up. This girl lives on a gazillion acres outside of Davis, California, kills rattlesnakes on her doorstep, sleeps on the roof, and builds things with wood. She took one look at the box and said, “What’s in it?”

Good lighting makes for a friendlier kitchen

After the unboxing, she proclaimed, “Easy.” Watching her install the light strip, I was a little embarrassed. The kit was so self-explanatory, even I could have handled it. You basically just screw the panels in where you want them, then plug them in. Voila, visible food.

Next project: LEDs for ambient lighting behind the computer to make the work easier on my eyes.

Have you switched to LEDs? If so, how do you use them? Please share ideas and photos!