1-by-4-foot,  LED light panels use Even-Glow® technology and diffused optical lenses to deliver smooth, flawless illumination without visible bulbs or hot spots. They can be recessed mounted or surface mounted to an existing ceiling junction box. The LED fixtures emit up to 4,600 lumens of natural white illumination for home lighting, kitchen lighting, living room lighting, office lighting, basement lighting, sign backlighting, hospital lighting, and more.

LEDs in the panel lights are designed to last five times longer than fluorescent tube light bulbs without the notorious hum or flicker they produce. Each LED panel light has a slim, white aluminum alloy frame and an internal 0-10-volt dimmable constant-current driver. Dimming can be achieved with a 0-10-volt switch or by using the light’s power-cycle feature to activate set brightness levels. The energy-efficient panel lights operate within a 100-277V AC range.

Looking for a creative way to save energy? Don't forget about your cable box. The television might not be the first device most people think of when it comes to energy conservation, but that's about to change. A voluntary agreement among manufacturers, cable providers and the federal government calls for big efficiency overhauls in the set-top boxes that bring cable and satellite signals into consumers' homes.

Meeting Efficiency Goals

Certain cable boxes can use half as much electricity as a refrigerator, according to the Energy Collective, so there's a lot of room to conserve. And a full 85 percent of American households have some kind of set-top box, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the Consumer Electronics Association. In households with multiple set-top boxes in different rooms, there may be a shocking amount of electricity consumed merely by piping in everyone’s favorite shows.

Set-top boxes don't have minimum federal standards, so the voluntary agreement is an alternative way to bring all the products up to a certain energy conservation threshold. Since technology changes so quickly in telecommunications, and the federal regulatory process is so cumbersome and slow, voluntary compliance allows stakeholders to advance efficiency goals without waiting for new regulations that might be outdated by the time they are enacted.

The agreement was put into place last year and should save consumers $168 million in electricity bills annually, according to the NCTA annual report on the program. Even more stringent voluntary standards will kick in in 2017.

Cutting-Edge Efficiency

The highest standards are found in the federal Energy Star program, which certifies set-top boxes that are 40 percent more efficient than average models. If every cable box hit the Energy Star benchmark, the program claims, consumers would save a total of $1 billion annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking two million cars off the road.

Most boxes are always drawing power, even when they’re in standby mode. One way in which more advanced models save energy is through deep sleep mode, which consumes a maximum of 15 percent of the power used during active mode. Automatic power-down is another feature that many new boxes include.

Providers are also offering “thin client” boxes for homes with multiple televisions. Under this arrangement, the main cable box may use a fair amount of electricity, but the additional boxes would consume considerably less.

Of course, most people don't buy their own cable boxes, so to make sure you’re getting an efficient model, remember to ask your cable provider. Your cable company may also be willing to upgrade your existing box or swap it out for a more advanced model.

There was a time when buying light bulbs used to be a much easier task than it is today. Then along came LED, CFL, and light bulbs bent on reducing energy. With this, the good old incandescent started losing their place on our bulb holders. Gone are the days when finding a bulb for your home just meant looking at the wattage on the box. If a bulb was rated 100 watts, you knew it would be 25% brighter than a 75-watt one.

An entirely new rating system is now used and this has been giving shoppers grief for quite a while. At the center of this confusion is the word ‘lumens,’ which appears along its older and more familiar cousin ‘watts.’ Learning about lumens is the price you pay to help keep our planet safe. Don’t worry, though. We will tell you everything you need to know about the new lights rating system.

Lumens are units used to measure how much light a bulb puts out. Watts measure how much electrical power the bulb uses. With incandescent bulbs, the expected brightness pretty much depended on the wattage of the bulb. One lumen is equal to the amount of light given out by a birthday candle.

The idea with energy saver bulbs is to use fewer watts and produce more power. Incandescent bulbs produced by different companies are pretty uniform. On the other hand, energy saver bulbs are so varied, you don’t know if two 50 watt bulbs will be equally bright. This is why CFL and LED bulbs have lumen figures printed on them while incandescent varieties only have wattage.

When you hear “lumen per watt”, think miles per gallon. This is a measure of efficiency. It measures how many lumens of electricity a bulb can produce when using up one watt of electricity. This is the factor that should interest you the most when you are buying light bulbs. The first step is to figure out the brightness you want in lumens. If you want a brighter room, go for a bulb with more lumens. To dim it down, consider a bulb with a smaller lumen rating. Also, find the lumens per watt rating to determine which bulb has the greatest efficiency. Usually, the lumens per watt rating is an average, as bulbs reduce in efficiency with time. The lumen per watt rating is calculated by dividing the brightness in lumens a bulb offers by the number of watts it takes to produce.

Watts can be converted into lumens by multiplying the lumens per watt rating by the brightness.

The Federal Trade Commission now requires a product information summary, called the Lighting Facts label, to be attached to every lighting product. Another label that you should be on the lookout for is the Energy Star mark. The system was created by the Environmental Protection Authority in 1992 to govern the energy consumption of various household and industrial appliances. When it comes to lighting, this mark is put on bulbs that have met a certain lumen per watts threshold. This mark effectively spells impending doom for incandescent bulbs because they do not come anywhere near fulfilling these new efficiency ratings. If you are not into reading the fine prints and making calculations, the Energy Star logo will make your life easier. Look for the label on light bulbs to ensure you are getting a good deal.

The chart below can help to understand the Energy Star system.

This chart is an excellent indicator of how incandescents measure up to energy savers.

Aside from the fact that you have one more bullet in your trivia arsenal, your hunt for light bulbs should now return to the simple task it should be.

LED Lighting Kit. This complete LED strip lighting kit is designed to permanently install on canopy tents, sun shelters, instant canopies, pop-up shelters, or E-Z UP Instant Shelters. A variety of colors are available—including “Bugs-Away” yellow—and the strip lights provide up to 360 lumens of illumination.