Energy Use Inside and Outside the Dwelling – 2007 Survey of Household Energy Use – Supplemental Report

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Energy use inside the dwelling

Lighting

The choice in light-bulb shapes, sizes and brightness continues to grow as more energy-efficient light bulbs come onto the Canadian market. As reported in the SHEU-2007 Summary Report, a significant proportion of households used energy-efficient lighting in 2007. In addition to using energy-efficient light bulbs, another way to conserve energy used for lighting is through lighting controls.

Lighting controls

SHEU-2007 was the first SHEU to gather data on the following lighting controls:

• programmable timer
• motion detector
• light sensor
• dimmers

Note: Penetration rate is the percentage of a sample population that used a given product during a specific time. For this report, the sample population is equal to the number of Canadian households that responded to a given question (unless otherwise stated).

In 2007, 14 percent of responding households used at least one programmable timer (see Figure 4). These timers automatically turn lights on and off according to the programmed time-of-day specifications. A more energy-efficient lighting control than a programmable timer is a motion detector. These detectors were used by 22 percent of households. Motion detectors automatically turn lights on when motion is detected by a sensor and turn them off after a period of no motion. Another lighting control that was used by 11 percent of Canadian households was a light sensor. These devices turn connected lights on and off automatically according to detected light levels.

The most common lighting control used by households was lighting dimmers. More than half of Canadian households had at least one dimmer installed in their dwelling. Dimmers can vary the light levels in a room as required. This can save energy and extend light-bulb life.

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