What is a LED Tube Light?

If you’re driving your SUV to the farmer’s market to buy local asparagus — and thinking you’re making a difference for the planet — not so fast. You’re focused on a detail and ignoring the gas-hogging elephant in the room.

Likewise, if you’re badgering your kids to turn out the lights and the bulbs are still incandescent, you could make more progress — and probably add harmony to your household — if you replaced those old energy-sucking bulbs with efficient ones.

As the authors of a new book point out, you’d have to leave the old bulbs off three out of four days to get energy savings comparable to that of CFL or LED bulbs.

The book is Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living, by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Experts at the science-based nonprofit spent two years calculating the direct and indirect carbon emissions from 500 categories of consumer activity.

“We tracked everything from clothes and cars to health care and day care,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, a UCS climate scientist and coauthor of the book.

They found a lot of low-hanging fruit, which may be good news because UCS wants all of us to reduce our emissions 20 percent over the next year.

And they found that many of the steps they recommend don’t just reduce a person’s carbon footprint. “They can also improve the quality of your life, save you money and time, and even improve your health,” the authors say.

Along the way, they sorted out a barrage of green advice and selected actions that deliver the biggest savings. So it’s a guide to making a difference, instead of worrying about whether to use a paper towel or the electric hand dryer in a public bathroom.

The way some people fret about the details, you’d think we had all the big stuff licked. Far from it. An American’s lifestyle, on average, results in 21 tons of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere every year, about four times the global average.

So perhaps we could consider the 20 percent reduction UCS is advocating a down payment on what many scientists say we need — an 80 percent reduction in emissions by the middle of the century. Or consider it a matter of doing your part because the government isn’t doing enough.

Praise for the book is mounting. “Whatever your view may be about climate-change projections, there are no good arguments that favor wasting energy and launching the world’s climate into an uncertain future,” said Neal Lane, a former White House science adviser in President Bill Clinton’s administration.

Recognizing that not everyone is in the same situation, the book offers more of a menu than a blueprint.

But some things clearly stand out. For most Americans, what matters most is how you drive, the energy you use at home, and what you eat, in that order.

EnvironmentalLights, an online retailer for high-quality, energy-efficient LED lighting, has been awarded "Best Of Remodeling" 2012 by Houzz, the leading online platform for residential remodeling and design. The LED lighting company was chosen by the more than 1.2 million registered members of the Houzz community.

The Houzz "Best Of Remodeling" award for 2012 is given in two categories: Customer Satisfaction and Design. Customer Satisfaction award winners are based on homeowner members who rated their experience working with remodeling professionals in 12 categories ranging from architects, and interior designers to contractors and other residential remodeling professionals. Design award winners' work was the most popular among the 1.2 million members, also known as "Houzzers," who saved more than 16.5 million professional images to their personal ideabooks via the Houzz site and iPad/iPhone app.

EnvironmentalLights won the Customer Satisfaction category for their "Best of Remodeling" Award. Primarily serve lighting designers, architects, electrical contractors and other professionals, EnvironmentalLights scours the globe for best-in-class LED lighting products and distributes them from their headquarters in San Diego and satellite warehouses throughout the United States.

"We put our efforts into not only the best products, but the best team," said Greg Thorson, president and CEO of EnvironmentalLights. "Our sales engineers provide expert advice in the selection and design of lighting systems, and work hand-in-hand with their customers until the installation is complete."

EnvironmentalLights offers a broad spectrum of under cabinet lighting, rope and strip lighting, light bulbs, landscape lights and other LED lighting solutions for commercial and residential applications. You can purchase their products at EnvironmentalLights and follow them on Houzz.

"With 3.5 million monthly unique users and 80 million monthly page views, Houzz has rapidly become the largest community of active remodelers, providing homeowners and design enthusiasts with first-hand advice from Houzzers who have been through the renovating and decorating process," said Liza Hausman, vice president of marketing for Houzz. "This is a real stamp of approval for EnvironmentalLights from the Houzz community and we're thrilled to welcome them to this elite group of 'Best Of' winners."

With Houzz, homeowners can identify not only the top-rated professionals like EnvironmentalLights, but also those whose work visually aligns with their own design goals. Homeowners can also evaluate professionals by contacting them directly on the Houzz platform, asking questions about their work and evaluating their responses to questions from others in the Houzz community.

The broadcast industry has several requirements for lighting equipment: it must be easy to use, work swiftly on the fly to keep up with fast-paced production schedules, stay cool during operation; and most importantly, the light that the gear produces has to flatter the talent and look good on screen. ETC took all of that into consideration while developing the new Source Four LED luminaire.

ETC Associate Entertainment Market Manager Matthew Armendariz-Kerr explains: "We knew that if we were going to build a profile fixture powered by LEDs, it had to be worthy of the 'Source Four' name. Our engineers and designers were able to package our exclusive Selador LED x7 Color System in a bright fixture that is shaped and sized like a Source Four and offers the quality and functionality designers expect."

ETC applied the philosophy of the patented Selador x7 Color System to the Source Four LED, to create adjustable, robust light that covers more of the color spectrum than other LEDs on the market. The Source Four LED Lustr+ takes color to the extreme, offering a nearly limitless range of hues, from vibrant colors and smooth pastels to subtly tinted white light. The super-efficient Source Four LED Tungsten fixture produces warm-white light, and the Source Four LED Daylight luminaire offers maximum brightness in cool white light. All three render skin tones and sets naturally, and have a projection-quality beam that compares to a traditional Source Four.

The Source Four LED luminaire can be used for smooth washes or a clean beam of focusable light. And it actually beats other Source Four fixtures when it comes to image clarity. Coupled with a Source Four EDLT (Enhanced Definition Lens Tube), the Source Four LED produces a sharp beam edge for crisp, clear images.

A big concern about lighting in a small, enclosed studio is temperature regulation. Lights that give off a lot of heat can quickly overwhelm a set. Replacing them with Source Four LEDs can cut down on heat generation, resulting in a cooler environment. The Source Four LED's lack of heat at the gate also means templates won't warp, lose color or burn.

Fade capabilities in LED fixtures, with choppy, noticeable dimming, have typically fallen short of what's necessary in broadcast lighting. ETC changes that trend with the Source Four LED, which boasts a tungsten fade curve for subtle dimming. "During filming," explains ETC Product Marketing Manager David Lincecum, "lighting designers can be confident knowing that their fades to black are smooth and right on cue."

Color-changing fixtures are usually difficult to use on the set due to the amount of noise they make. The Source Four LED changes colors silently, so designers can take advantage of the x7 Color System without worrying about disrupting what's happening on the set. And, the fixture works seamlessly with color pickers on lighting control consoles, so designers can quickly choose a gel color for a scene. If the color isn't the exact hue needed, designers can tap into the x7 color range and adjust the color until it's just right.