Buy Energy Star Certified Lighting to Save Money
February 25, 2025
How Buying Energy Star Can Cost You Less & Give You More
Thanks to impressive energy efficiency gains in lighting products over the past couple of years, household lighting remains at 3.5% of the energy used in the average Canadian home despite an increase in the number of fixtures in homes. In commercial and institutional settings, lighting accounts for 13.5% of energy used.
Lighting basically has two components—bulbs and fixtures. Sometimes, these are integrated, with the fixture including a built-in light source (or bulb).
ENERGY STAR certified lighting products have big benefits over standard ones. They are designed and rigorously tested to last longer, provide better light quality, offer better compatibility with other products, and have warrantees to back them up.
Make the switch to ENERGY STAR certified light bulbs, fixtures and decorative light strings like Holiday lights to cut your electricity bill and reduce your carbon footprint.
Choosing the Right Product for Your Home
It is important to be sure that the bulb you choose uses the least amount of energy to produce the maximum amount of light. Meanwhile, your fixtures should use the least amount of energy to operate the light source in them. The easiest way to do this is to select an ENERGY STAR certified product.
ENERGY STAR Certified Lighting
The following products are available in Canada.
- Decorative light strings (including Holiday lights)
- Light bulbs (known as “lamps” in the industry)
- Light fixtures (known as “luminaires” in the industry)
Find certified products using the ENERGY STAR Product Finder. (Note: you will be redirected to the U.S. ENERGY STAR website. Click “Canada” as your market).
Lighting That Is Regulated
Canada’s Energy Efficiency Regulations establish minimum performance standards for energy efficiency and help eliminate the least efficient products from the Canadian marketplace.
The following ENERGY STAR certified lighting is subject to Canada’s Energy Efficiency Regulations: ceiling fans, torchieres and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)
Exit signs, fluorescent lamp ballasts, fluorescent lamps, incandescent reflector lamps, metal halide lamp ballasts and traffic signal modules and pedestrian modules, are regulated but are NOT eligible for ENERGY STAR certification.
See more information about The Regulations that help eliminate the least efficient products from the Canadian market.
Helpful Tips
- Use lighting controls such as timers, motion sensors and photocells to reduce light use when it’s not needed.
- Turn off your lights when they’re not in use.
- When comparing light bulbs, use lumens (the amount of light provided by the bulb) rather than watts (the amount of power used by the bulb). This lets you directly compare light quantity.
- Visit the individual product pages above for more helpful tips.
- See our list of ENERGY STAR participating manufacturers and retailers.
Look for the ENERGY STAR Symbol
The easiest way to identify efficient lighting is to look for the ENERGY STAR symbol on the product or packaging. All ENERGY STAR certified products are tested to strict efficiency standards and are certified by an independent third party. They perform the same as or better than standard products without compromising performance in any way.
