YOUR HOME's CARBON FOOTPRINT
An article this weekend in the New York Times said Americans can cut greenhouse emissions in half in 20 years by switching the lamps in our homes to these sorts of lights. Your home's low carbon footprint can be a selling point in your listing. Changing your lighting has financial, safety and marketing benefits when renting or swapping your home. This is something that I became painfully aware of as I tried to find the house where we spent last weekend.
SHEDDING LIGHT ON YOUR HOME
Over Memorial Day we had an amazing vacation at a home in the suburbs north of New York City. Everything was perfect except for one thing: when we arrived it was pitch-black and we drove back and forth looking for their unlit address sign. If only they had done what I did this weekend: buy some new lighting. Once we finally located the driveway and drove up the hill to the house, we noticed that the owners of this Craftsman-style house had matching Craftsman-style solar-powered path lights near the front door. This kept us safer in the otherwise pitch-black country area where the home is situated, but a simple spotlight at the foot of their driveway could have saved us a lot of frustration.
DON'T LEAVE GUESTS IN THE DARK
Is it hard for folks to find your home? You may know where your home is located but guests or emergency services personnel may not. A lit house number is crucial for your safety if you need an ambulance, or for folks arriving at night for a visit to your home. A family that finds it frustrating to find your home may not want to return. No external wiring is needed with solar-powered outdoor lights. And whatever the initial expense of outdoor lights, it's worth it to remove liability concerns if guests or renters may trip in the dark trying to find your home.
SPOTLIGHTING YOUR HOME'S CARBON FOOTPRINT
Solar lighting isn't just for outdoor areas with no wiring. I recently got an amazing reading light. It has a low-power, bright LED that lasts almost forever. What's even better, it is actually powered by its own solar cell! I never have to plug it in. I just leave it in the window in the morning and use it to read at night (click on post title to see this environmental wonder). My experience with this sort of lighting shows me that saving money and reducing emissions need not be a sacrifice with the bright new LED lights available these days.
DO YOUR LISTING PHOTOS GIVE A DIM VIEW OF YOUR HOME?
Those of us lucky enough to live in an apartment do not have the problem of pitch-black entryways, but we have other issues. One big one is dim interiors. Apartment buildings are often located in congested areas with lots of tall buildings. I often see listing photos showing dim, depressing rooms. This is not inviting. Make sure your photos are well-lit, even if you have to move lamps into the room to light it for the camera.
When showing lighting fixtures in your listing photos, be careful, though. I have a lighting prejudice, and that is those awful old flourescent fixtures with the long bulbs. Yes, I know, compact flourescents are "green" lighting. But standard flourescents often flicker and give me a headache. And they can make your home look stark in listing photos.
I actually cringe when I look at the lamps in the photos I used in my first home listing. Back in 1991 I had cheap black torchieres with gold knobs in my living room. It doesn't even matter what the rest of the decor was because they stood out like a sore thumb. And since that is the only source of light in the photo, my eye goes right to them.
LIGHTING AS AN AMENITY
My son fell in love with the life-sized goose light in the child's room of the home we used. In his own room we tied together a rocketship decorating theme with a lamp shaped like a star that has small holes in it to project a starry night sky into the ceiling. This lamp cost all of $25 but it really stands out in listing photos, shedding a warm and visually interesting halo of light.
Billing your home as energy-efficient can actually attract vacationers who look to home exchange or apartment rental as an ecological alternative to hotels. If you are ready to replace dated lighting, consider green options like the new LED lamps just coming onto the market. The better ones have the same warmth and intensity as a halogen bulb but they last for years or even decades and use a fraction of the energy of standard bulbs. Energy-efficient lighting can actually pay for itself, especially when guests who are not as energy-conscious as you are staying in your home and perhaps not turning off the lights when they go out.
Modern lighting may be the cheapest way to make your home significantly safer, cozier and more attractive, both literally and figuratively.
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