The pool at your Tampa home is an excellent place to enjoy recreation, to relax, or even to host events and parties. But are you getting the most out of your pool design? The use of light can add not only dynamic appeal to your space, but provides a greater level of safety. Not to mention the fun of a nighttime pool party!

As we venture further into the era of climate change, humans are constantly searching for ways to decrease energy consumption and increase efficiency. Unfortunately, there's no silver bullet. Truly reducing our impact on the global climate requires a combination of an increase in renewable power generation, behavioral changes to decrease consumption and increasing the efficiency of our homes and appliances. Even as we strive for improvement, sometimes we fall short. According to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, for example, a federal Weatherization Assistance Program is not bringing in the expected efficiency benefits.

Looking for the Win-Win

Investments in home efficiency are usually considered win-win scenarios. Reductions in energy consumption lessen the impact on the environment and reduce energy bills at the same time. Many upgrades, like replacing an outdated refrigerator with a new Energy Star-certified model, will eventually pay for themselves in energy savings.

However, not every savings promise comes through. The Berkeley study looked at 30,000 households in Michigan that upgraded their home systems with new insulation, weather stripping, HVAC equipment and more. The federal government paid up to $5,000 per house for the improvements, but the average household only realized $2,400 in savings during the lifespan of their new efficiency features. That's not a great return on investment.

Ancillary Benefits

The households saved 10 to 20 percent on their energy costs, on average, which is only about 40 percent of what they were projected to save. The results are discouraging for consumers who are striving to implement any cost-saving measures they can find. Electricians and home service technicians can help you upgrade your home systems, but the changes will only go so far.

There were other benefits to the weatherization program outside the raw financial data, of course. The investments were aimed at low income households, so the money saved helped reduce poverty in the area. Plus, the reduction of carbon in the atmosphere from the program has additional economic benefits. Nevertheless, the disappointing result could be a blow to the willingness of the government to make similar investments in the future.

Let the Buyer Beware

The big lesson for the consumer? Don't believe just any claim about energy efficiency, and do your due diligence before investing in a big-ticket upgrade. You can and should make efforts to reduce your energy consumption, but be careful not to blow your investment dollars on items that don't give you a good return.

"This underscores the value of field-testing," paper author Michael Greenstone said to Vox. "Particularly in a world where economy-wide carbon pricing does not look feasible, we should be redoubling our efforts to find those CO2 reduction measures that have the biggest bang for the buck."

If you need advice on how to get the best return when it comes to energy efficiency, find an experienced electrician who can help you invest your dollars wisely and steer you away from less effective purchases.

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Energy Efficient Lighting Solutions for Aging Eyes

As people get older there is more time to really enjoy the homes they have built for themselves. The kids have grown and moved away, and being physically comfortable has, perhaps, become more important than it once was.  Knowing that aging eyes need a better kind of light and more of it to be comfortable, remodeling the lighting in your home improves comfort threefold.

“Baby boomers are finding that they need three to four times as much light and that glare is hard on the eyes,” says Norm Brown, CLC, of Norburn Lighting & Bath Centre in Burnaby, B.C., and a consultant for the American Lighting Association (ALA). “Fluorescent light bulbs are easier to see by than regular light bulbs. LED lights are being used more for their reduced glare, as well as Halogen, for their white light quality. You can choose energy-efficient bulbs in many styles for redecorating your whole house.”

Capitol Lighting offers ceiling, wall-mounted and portable fixtures, and recessed and track lighting in energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs as well as light-emitting diode (LED) lights to help aging eyes. Shop from thousands of fluorescent lights and energy efficient lighting solutions when remodeling your home’’s lighting at 1800lighting.com today! Aging eyes can see more clearly with energy efficient lighting solutions from Capitol Lighting.