Lighting accounts for about 10 to 15 percent of total energy consumption in a typical U.S. home.1 About 87% of residential lighting sources currently use incandescent technologies. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that up to 31.7 billion kWh, or 35% of all electricity currently used for lighting, could be saved with the use of CFLs. While about half of U.S. households are familiar with CFLs, only 8.9% of households use CFLs.2 A considerable amount of research has been devoted to characterizing overall residential lighting markets. Rather than repeating it here, among the many resources that exist, we recommend two sources in particular for assessments of the overall fixture and CFL markets: Lighting the Way to Energy Savings: How Can We Transform Residential Lighting Markets? (Natural Resources Defense Council, December 1999) and Lighting Market Sourcebook for the U.S. (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, December 1997).

7.2. Types of Outdoor Lighting
From a functional and style perspective, there are three basic types of outdoor lighting: decorative, security, and landscape lighting. These distinctions are not consistent in the lighting industry; manufacturers and retailers market lighting fixtures in any number of configurations. Also, the categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, both decorative and landscape lighting can serve a security lighting role, some ground-mounted landscape lighting fixtures have decorative elements, and controls are not exclusively limited to flood lighting. However, by categorizing outdoor lighting by functional and style characteristics, we can isolate some of the elements that are important to consider in promoting energy saving alternatives.

Phase 2: Residential Lighting Fixture Market Assessment: Ceiling Fans and Outdoor Lighting Page 35 The lack of a detailed and comprehensive source of U.S. shipments, imports, and exports of residential outdoor fixtures makes it difficult estimate sales volume by category. Across all categories of residential outdoor lighting, the largest volume of sales probably can be attributed to decorative lighting, followed by security, then landscape lighting.33 As Table 6 shows, the California Energy Commission estimates that over 10% of all fixtures installed in homes are decorative, just over 1% are security and a similar number are other types of outdoor lighting (presumably landscape).

Source: Heschong Mahone Group. Residential Lighting Baseline: Lighting Efficiency Technology Report.

California Energy Commission. CEC Contract #400-95-012. October 21, 1996.

Other sources offer incomplete data or data not directly comparable. For example, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. shipments of residential outdoor fixtures in 1998 consisted of 3.2 million fixtures designed for attachment to the house and 13.7 million unattached fixtures for the garden, patio, and yard. No estimates were provided for shipments of custom lighting (lanterns, etc.). Another source of residential outdoor lighting shipments (including imports, domestic production, and exports) from 1993 estimates about 9 to 10 million units of post, yard, and landscape lighting; about 8 million units of wall and ceiling fixtures; and about 2 million units of parabolic aluminum reflector (PAR) holders.34 Approximately 6% of outdoor fixture shipments in the U.S. are fluorescent; the vast majority are incandescent.35 It is estimated that about

200,000 to 350,000 Energy Star outdoor fixtures were sold in 1999.36 

7.2.3 Landscape Lighting

Whereas decorative lighting and flood lighting are designed to illuminate areas of outdoor space, in landscape lighting, the effect of the lights (ability to highlight a landscape or architectural feature with light and shadow) is often more important. Landscape lighting fixtures are intended to be unobtrusive; it is common for them to be concealed within the foliage they are intended to illuminate. Manufacturer lines of landscape lighting include spot lights, floods, and products such as walk-way lighting, bollards, deck lighting, and step lighting fixtures that are sometimes included in decorative product lines.

Due to the fact that landscape lighting is largely installed for aesthetic purposes, it is a category of outdoor lighting reserved primarily for higher-income consumers, and it is a market that is closely tied to a strong economy. As applications of landscape lighting often incorporate artistic design, consumers are likely to utilize the services of a landscape designer or lighting consultant in specifying fixtures. Landscape lighting designs vary widely, as do the costs, with consumers spending $800 to $1,200 for lighting a typical suburban front lawn, but as high as $10,000 for Phase 2: Residential Lighting Fixture Market Assessment: Ceiling Fans and Outdoor Lighting Page 38 more elaborate full yard designs.39 At the low end of the landscape lighting market are products used primarily for pathway lighting.

Landscape lighting configurations are varied and applications can be highly creative. Variations include downlighting (light source from above) to imitate moonlight or sunlight, uplighting (light source from below), or backlighting (light source creating a silhouette of object of interest against a backdrop wall or fence).

Lighting sources commonly used in landscape lighting include incandescent, halogen, and mercury vapor. In some cases, colored light sources are used for dramatic effect. Low voltage systems are also commonly used with landscape lighting design. While individual low voltage lighting fixtures are available from retailers, a popular method of marketing this style of lighting in home improvement and hardware stores is to package a family of low voltage products together. Some solar pathway fixtures are available, although those at the low-end of the market do not provide the levels of light output that many consumers expect, and one retailer from a big box home improvement store we spoke to discourages selling them based on high return rates.

The fact that many landscape fixtures require very low light output makes them a potentially good application for CFLs. However, many landscape lighting fixtures designs are physically small, which may limit applications where CFL-based fixtures can match consumer expectations. 

7.4. Energy-Savings Potential

Outdoor lighting accounts for 10% to 15% of total household lighting energy use. This is due to the fact that most homes have outdoor lighting, and the lights are used for multiple hours each day. The DOE estimates that in approximately half the homes with outdoor lighting, the combined wattage of all outdoor lights is over 150 watts. Four out of ten homes turn their lights on for the evening, and the remainder either leave the lights on all night, or have them controlled 40 E-Source. Lighting. Technology Atlas Series, Volume 1, 1997. Boulder, CO. Phase 2: Residential Lighting Fixture Market Assessment: Ceiling Fans and Outdoor Lighting Page 40 in some way.41 It is estimated that outdoor lights are used an average of almost 3 hours per day.42 The vast majority of outdoor lighting is incandescent, not energy saving CFLs

8.2. Retail Sources for Fixtures

In home improvement and maintenance activities, there is a large do-it-yourself market. Consumers find residential fixtures in a wide variety of retail stores that range from home improvement stores to hardware stores to department stores to lighting specialty stores. The store that consumers shop in depends somewhat on the type of fixture being purchased. For example, consumers buying ceiling fans are most likely to go to a home improvement store, unless they are buying a higher-end fan, which can be found at a lighting specialty store. Consumers buying decorative and security outdoor fixtures go to home improvement stores and hardware stores, whereas a consumer in a high-end, custom home may utilize a landscape contractor to assist in landscape lighting. Contractors (builders, electrical) are occasionally involved in the specification of fixtures for renovation and remodeling work.