Lighting your home, or, heating your home?

Your air conditioner's main job is to remove heat from the home.  Many homes have installed window screens to reduce the amount of searing heat brought into the home from the Arizona sun. While this greatly reduces the "solar gain", the home tends to be dark as a result of the screens, as such, lights are turned on throughout the home. 

Lights produce heat, and a lot of it.  If you can tolerate the pain, try touching your standard, or CFL (compact florescent light) 5 minutes after you turn them on. They are very effective heaters. Your air conditioner must remove that heat as well.  Don't heat your home while you are cooling it.

LED's provide excellent light, use little energy, produce very little heat, and last longer than traditional or CFL bulbs. LED's are the best option available.  

• LEDs emit very little heat. In contrast, incandescent bulbs release 90% of their energy as heat, CFLs release about 80% of their energy as heat.
• Another LED light benefit is that LEDs, because they emit light in a specific direction, do not need diffusers or reflectors that trap lights. This helps increase LED efficiency for uses such as downlights (recessed downlights are common in residential kitchens, hallways and bathrooms) or task lighting.
• The Department of Energy estimates that there are at least 500 million downlights in U.S. homes, with more than 20 million sold each year. The DOE estimates that both CFL and LED lighting could decrease downlight wattage by at least 75%.
• The same LED string of holiday lights could still be in use 40 holiday seasons from now.
  
  • according to Energy.gov.